


Wayward Boys

by thatotherperv



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Human, Dubious Consent, M/M, Meta Fic, Multi, Past Underage, Tripletcest, douchebaggery is a valid kink
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2006-08-26
Updated: 2007-11-17
Packaged: 2018-05-03 16:46:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 22,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5298803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatotherperv/pseuds/thatotherperv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>meta on the three faces of Angel.  treatise on the id, ego and superego.  noble exploration of Angel's character through the ages via smut.</p><p>ok, it's dirty human AU tripletcest.  I got nothin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> archiving notes:   
> I never finished the last 1-2 parts of this fic, and therefore never got them all in bed together simultaneously - but I think it was clear how things were wrapping up, where I left off.
> 
> back in the day, Spike/William human AU twincest became a Thing (called Spilliam, god help us), pulling apart the two sides of Spike's personality and showing how they interacted for fun and smut, but no one ever did anything similar with Angel. and since all 3 of Angel's personas were 1000x hotter to me than William, I decided to give it a go.
> 
> originally posted [here](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=thatotherperv&keyword=Wayward%20Boys%20Angel%2FLiam%2FAng%27us%20human%20AU&filter=all).
> 
> original notes:  
> Warning: this fic deals with *human AU incest* among triplets. Although the boys are 22 in the majority of the fic, there is at least one flashback, maybe more, dealing with underage sex. In one, they are in their early teen years, and it’s more for expository purposes than anything, but it _is_ graphic. If you think this will bother you, run away now**
> 
> fyi, I toyed with how ‘evil’ I should make Angelus. What I settled on is, not evil so much as manipulative and amoral. Considering what we found out in As5 about how Angelus interacted with his vampire ‘family,’ I think that’s about right even before you consider that Angelus is human in this one. On another note, no one would name two of their three children ‘Angel’ and ‘Angelus’. But I work with what I got. Also, all 3 of them have American accents, because it makes more sense for them to all speak the same way, and it’s easier for me.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Liam and Angelus are introduced

Angelus stumbled under his brother’s weight as they spilled from the bar out into the street. He grunted and tried to steer Liam towards the city park, staggering under his weaving, drunken bulk. It would almost be easier if Liam were dead weight—as it was, he flung himself around carelessly, shouting that horrid song tunelessly, at the top of his lungs.

“I see a little silhouetto of a man,  
Scaramouche, scaramouche will you do the fandango-  
Thunderbolt and lightning—very very frightening me-  
Galileo, galileo,  
Galileo galileo  
Galileo figaro-magnifico!

“Come on, Angelus, sing with me!” Liam lurched heavily towards Angelus, breathing sour whiskey breath into Angelus’ face and nearly causing them both to topple off the dirt path of the groomed city park and into the grass. Angelus didn’t dignify the request with a response, and Liam, drunken lout that he was, forgot that he had made it. He threw his arms open expansively and sang to the stars, belting the appropriate lines in an impressive falsetto that made Angelus snort.

“But I’m just a poor boy and nobody loves me-  
He’s just a poor boy from a poor family…”

When Liam toppled himself ass over tit onto the lawn in his enthusiasm, Angelus let him go to avoid being dragged down. Liam’s thick skull thudded painfully to the ground, and the idiot laughed like it was the funniest joke in the world.

Angelus grimaced in distaste. God save him for the fools he was tied to by blood.

Though, it had been _Angelus’_ idea to get Liam shit-faced, so really, he couldn’t be too sore about being the one to carry him home. In his defense, it didn’t take much convincing, with Liam.

The moron was _still_ singing from the grass, legs and arms flailing as though he were making a snow angel.

“Because I’m easy come, easy go,  
A little high, little low,  
Anyway the wind blows—doesn’t really matter  
TO MEEEEEEEE!!”

Angelus’ mouth twitched up into a smile despite himself. The lyrics fit his brother’s easygoing disposition to a tee. Sunny happy Liam.

Jackass.

Angelus toed Liam with his boot. “Get up, Easy Boy.”

Liam rolled a little and hugged Angelus’ boot. Angelus rolled his eyes. “’Gelus, don’t you just love Queen?” he slurred, smiling blearily upwards.

“You are a queen. Now get up.”

Liam started giggling, and Angelus sighed. He’d never get the big galut up now. “Not me, Gus. Angel’s the queen!”

Angelus barked out a laugh. “Right you are, little brother. And I told you not to call me that.”

Liam scowled momentarily. “’M not little.”

Angelus squatted down and smirked. “Oh, I know that, little brother,” he purred, running a light finger over the crotch of Liam’s pants. Liam shuddered, making a plaintive sound in his throat and straining like a cat up towards the caress.

Liam was an easy boy, tonight.

Angelus licked his lips and studied Liam’s face, flushed with drink and new arousal, eyes fluttering under their lashes at his touches. It had been too long. Liam only ever responded to him this way when he was trashed. But there had been a time….

“Liam,” Angelus crooned. Liam’s eyes drowsed open and half-focused on him. Angelus thumped his leg with an open palm. “Get up. Time to go home.”

“Ok, Gus,” Liam slurred agreeably.

“Don’t call me that, asshole,” Angelus said again, hauling Liam to his feet. He picked a few leaves out of Liam’s long, unkempt hair.

They did an awkward three-legged shuffle through the parks and streets of downtown until they came to the mansion, built in an era when it was acceptable to have mansions downtown, all in a row to announce your wealth. Or maybe, built at a time when the area wasn’t downtown at all but on the outskirts. Who the fuck knew…Angel, probably. The pansy loved that sort of shit.

Getting Liam up the stairs was a serious chore, as the clumsy bastard kept catching his feet on the risers. Liam laughed madly when he face-planted into the wood once, and Angelus had to shush him. If Angel woke up and found them, Angelus’ fun would be over.

Finally, _finally_ , Angelus was able to throw Liam onto his bed like a sack of potatoes. A drunken sack of potatoes that found the way his mattress bounced under his own weight to be supremely amusing. Angelus closed and locked the door, and bent to remove the shoes from Liam’s feet, which dangled over the edge of the bed.

“You’re such a good brother, ‘Gelus,” Liam slurred dreamily. “Takin’ care….” He sniffled and settled his weight, getting comfy.

Fucker was gonna fall asleep on him!

Angelus leaned over Liam and smacked him lightly, and then not so lightly, across the cheek. “Hey! Hey, Liam. You still with me?”

Liam’s eyes rolled open and he grinned like the fool that he was. “’Course. Always with you.”

The sheer sweetness of Liam’s smile and the comforting truth of his words affected Angelus more than he was willing to admit. He mashed his mouth to Liam’s, hard, and Liam melted like hot fudge in his hands, just moaned and oozed back into the bedspread under the attention of Angelus’ lips and teeth and tongue. The longer Angelus gnawed at Liam’s mouth, the more animated his triplet became, until large hands were clutching desperately at Angelus’ silk shirt.

Best to remove that before Liam ripped it…again. Angelus sat up and began to unbutton the garment, grinding his hips against Liam’s cock in practiced distraction. Angelus had learned the hard way that if he let off the heat once they’d begun, Liam would start piecing together fractured drunken thoughts that probably sounded suspiciously like Angel, and he’d start feeling ashamed. That meant no fucking.

So Angelus made sure he always kept Liam’s mind on other things.

Liam moaned and gripped Angelus’ undulating hips through skin-tight leather pants, hazy eyes darting from the outlined erection to the newly revealed bronze skin of Angelus’ torso. Biting his lip like a guilty little boy, Liam slid one rough hand over the soft skin of Angelus’ lower belly, dragging his fingers across the musculature there. Angelus shuddered. Liam’s face, a softer version of his own, was flushed with lust.

Hungry to see that face blind with passion, Angelus pushed Liam’s t-shirt up his chest with teasing lingering fingers. Liam whimpered. Angelus latched his mouth ruthlessly onto one dusky nipple, and Liam’s hips bucked under his own.

Angelus groaned and snuck one hand inside Liam’s boxers to take hold of the hard cock inside.

“’Gelus!” Liam sobbed out. He squirmed as Angelus’ hot, parted lips trailed towards his navel teasingly, body quivering like a drawn bow. Suddenly Liam whimpered again, in distress, and started to shove at Angelus like he meant to dislodge him. Angelus had anticipated Liam’s panic and held fast, drawing clever teeth slowly across his brother’s lower belly. Liam shuddered despite himself, and Angelus hid a smile against his skin.

“No, Angelus…we have to stop. This isn’t…I told you last time….” The protest was weak, but distressed enough that it couldn’t be ignored.

Angelus heaved a sigh against Liam’s belly and placed a kiss there before crawling up to settle his body on top of the nearly identical one. This was practically routine, by this point in their lives. He smoothed back Liam’s wild lion mane and kissed him on the nose, laughing when the other boy went cross-eyed to follow the movement. Boy? None of them were boys any more. Twenty-two last month. But it was hard not to think of this one as a boy. Angelus had always been savvy and Angel had been an old man at 16, but Liam, the baby by birth order, had an eternally young quality. Forever the carefree playboy, and forever in need of guidance.

“Hey now, would I steer you wrong?” Angelus soothed. Liam’s eyes slid away guiltily. He didn’t answer, and truthfully, Angelus _would_ steer him wrong, and frequently did. Change of tactics. “Hey, look at me. Are we hurting anybody, Lee?”

Liam’s eyes flickered back—eyes that were murky with drink and gray morals. “Angel said that—”

“Angel’s not here,” Angelus lilted temptingly. Liam’s eyes slid to the door and back. He still clung tenaciously to Angel's disapproval, though it had been years since their other brother had weighed in on the matter. Angelus’ hips swiveled against Liam's erection, and hazy brown eyes rolled back with a stifled moan. “It’s just love, little brother. Do you love me?”

Liam looked torn and panicky at being misinterpreted. “Of course, Angelus! But I—”

Angelus captured an earlobe between his teeth, making the body beneath him buck and shudder. “Don’t I always take care of you?” he asked silkily. His hand slipped back underneath the fabric of Liam’s underwear , fingers closing again onto Liam’s cock. Liam drew in a shuddery breath and nodded his head, jaw slack and eyes closed.

There would be no more trouble from him.

Angelus sat up. “Good boy. Now let’s get you naked.” He rucked the t-shirt over Liam’s head with a little cooperation, then pulled off Liam’s pants and boxers and nudged him further onto the queen-sized mattress, stripping off his own pants.

Angelus took a moment to enjoy the vision of Liam, loose and compliant. When he swallowed Liam’s cock without warning, plunging his nose into the musky curls around the base, Liam bowed up off the bed and shouted incoherently, hips trying to buck up further into Angelus’ throat and balls drawing up in surprise.

Angelus pinched off Liam’s orgasm ruthlessly at the base, and Liam cried, begged. Angelus drew off and smirked up into the glassy brown eyes.

“Ah-ah-ah! Not yet.”

Liam twisted and whined and fucked thin air as Angelus thrust slick, probing fingers into his ass. He babbled pretty, pleading words. “God, please, ‘Gelus, pleaseplease, need…mmm, need you….”

Angelus slapped his flank. “Yeah, I’ve got you, baby. Here, roll over.” Liam complied like the eager puppy he was, and Angelus slipped a pillow underneath his hips—the satin one. He knew Liam liked how it felt on his cock.

Liam’s body was limp and trusting for him, sprawled, cheek to the bedspread, eyes closed and fluttering, ass moving pleadingly up against nothing. Angelus braced himself above his triplet’s back and pressed smoothly into his body.

He remained buried for a moment, molded against the tawny muscles, savoring the hot, hugging sensation and shuddering a little with it. Angelus only ever barebacked with Liam, and it had been almost a month since he’d last been able to maneuver his brother into one of their trysts. This was like…coming home, to be so intimately joined with Liam’s sweetness. Crawling inside a better version of himself. He _needed_ this. Didn’t they? Couldn’t they feel it?

Liam drew a shaky breath beneath him. “Gus?” he asked, uncertain.

Angelus pushed up on his hands and smacked Liam’s ass in censure. Liam knew how much Angelus hated that fucking baby version of his name. The smack was really no punishment, not for Liam, who pushed into it, inadvertently fucking himself onto Angelus’ cock and then groaning and sinking back into the bed. Angelus’ breath hitched at the motion.

He withdrew until he saw the head of his cock peeking at the gathered edge of Liam’s pucker, then slammed back in. Liam gave a muffled, strangled shout into the bed and grasped blindly at the air until Angelus threaded his fingers with Liam’s. Liam clung. He always needed that reassurance.

Angelus fucked him hard and fast and dirty, shoving Liam’s body into the bed again and again with the force of his thrusting. Liam moaned and grunted and gasped, whimpering prettily when Angelus struck his prostate. Begging. What for, Angelus really couldn’t say.

When Angelus felt himself dancing right along the pleasure-pain edge of coming, he pressed himself close over Liam’s body, scraping sharp teeth over the sweaty nape of his brother’s neck as he continued to pound into him. Liam’s body spasmed at the contact, and Angelus leaned closer to growl in his ear.

“Fuck, baby. Such a good little slut for me, aren’t you, Lee? Can’t resist my cock.” Angelus squeezed his eyes shut as he felt Liam’s passage quivering around him in impending orgasm. “Say it,” he demanded.

Liam sobbed. “I do, I need you, Angelus, I need….” The words choked off in a silent shout as he seized and bucked into the pillow, powerful contractions squeezing down on Angelus’ cock and milking it until Angelus buried himself deep and came with his teeth latched onto Liam’s shoulder. Christ on a cross, there was absolutely nothing on earth like shooting a load in Liam’s ass while he whined and shuddered and bucked beneath him.

After it was over, Angelus remained molded to Liam’s back, pressing a firm but tender kiss between the meaty shoulder blades before resting his head. There were only a few moments of peace before Liam’s back began to quake beneath Angelus’ cheek, and he heard wet sniffling.

Angelus sighed. It was going to be one of _those_ nights.

“Hey, babe, you’re ok.” Angelus’ cock fell wetly out of Liam’s body as he maneuvered them to lay the right way up the bed, tossing away the come-soaked pillow and rolling a liquor-weepy Liam into a spooning embrace. “You’re alright, little brother. Sshhh-shh-shhhh.” He petted gentle hands over Liam, sweeping sweaty hair off his neck and calming the trembling of his body. Murmuring little nothings. He gave Liam tender, on nights like these. Liam was typically too smashed to remember any details anyway, so it didn’t matter, if Angelus was soft on him.

When Liam finally quieted with a few snuffles and slipped into unconsciousness, Angelus pulled one corner of the bedspread on top of them so that they were cocooned—Liam doubly so, wrapped up in Angelus’ arms and the leg thrown over his hip.

Liam started to snore a little, softly. Drunken sot. It tugged at Angelus’ very secret heartstrings.

Angelus felt content—sated and content—for the first time in nearly a month. It wasn’t perfect—there was one too few bodies in the bed for it to be that. But it was good enough.

For now. In good time, he’d make it better.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Angel feels dirty

Angel was up with the sunrise, which was nothing new, really. He rose early every morning, and he liked it—both Angelus and Liam tended to sleep the morning away, rising sometime in the early afternoon if they’d gotten into a bottle the night before. Angel liked that he got this time to himself, before the order of his universe could be interrupted by his unruly brothers. Quiet time, to read the paper and listen to the house settle on its foundations.

Angel liked the quiet. He liked sitting in a room lit only by indirect light filtering through the blinds, alone with his own thoughts. Neither of his brothers understood that. Understood him.

“Morning, Ang.”

Liam stumbled into the kitchen and over to the refrigerator, looking rumpled and wild-haired, and Angel suddenly remembered waking up at 3am, disturbed by drunken laughter coming from downstairs.

Something tickled at his brain, but he let it go.

“Morning, kid. How’d you sleep.”

“Fine,” Liam mumbled to the backsplash of the stove. Angel winced as Liam cracked eggs messily into one of the new frying pans. He was going to ruin the Teflon coating by breaking the eggs along the edge. Again.

“Might want to pick out the eggshells, or you’re in for a nasty surprise,” Angel suggested. You had to keep an eye on Liam sometimes. It was more like he was a little brother than a peer.

Liam shrugged at the unsolicited advice and threw him an affable grin. “I like it crunchy.” He laughed when Angel moued in distaste. “Not all of us can be great cooks, Ang, but I _am_ capable of feeding myself, you know.”

“Of course,” Angel confirmed agreeably, though he was skeptical. He turned back to his paper, unable to watch Liam massacre his good cookware.

Angel’s newspaper was ripped out of the way seconds later by Angelus, who pressed a wet smacking kiss to his forehead and ruffled his hair in a way that raised Angel’s hackles. Angel drew back in disgust as the stink rolling off of Angelus hit him.

“Christ, Angelus, you reek. Couldn’t you have the courtesy to wash off whatever dirty fuck you had last night, before you come down to breakfast?”

Angelus threw him a sharply self-satisfied grin before wandering into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of orange juice. Ever inappropriate, he slapped Liam on the ass as he passed, and Liam flinched…out of surprise.

“How are you feeling this morning, Lee?” Angelus smiled in a glittery way and shook Liam by the back of the neck. For some reason Liam blushed.

“I’m well.”

Angelus was smug and secretive. “Damn straight, you’re well.” He turned to Angel. “Angel, our boy here racked up a $150 bar tab last night. By himself. You should have seen it. Threw em back like a real champ, didn’t you?”

Angel frowned. Was he supposed to be proud of the fact that their youngest sibling was a lush? One of these days, Liam was going to have to grow up.

“Almost started a bar brawl too. I had to drag him out of there before he could do something he really _regretted_. Didn’t I, Lee?”

Liam nodded into the frying pan and Angelus gave a final squeeze at his neck before spinning to settle himself at the table opposite Angel. After Liam had sufficiently burned the hell out of his crunchy eggs, he joined them.

“I need you to wait for the plumber this afternoon,” Angel told Angelus over his paper. “I have to head into the office, and he still hasn’t come.”

“No can do, bro. I have a date.” Angelus smiled and threaded his hands together behind his head.

“A date,” Angel repeated dangerously. “In the middle of the afternoon. On a weekday.” Was he the only one trying to hold this place together? He was sick and tired of being the only grownup in this house.

Angelus laughed. “Yup. In the middle of the afternoon. And another one tonight.”

“Fuck, Angelus, what am I supposed to do while you’re out getting your rocks off? Somebody has to work around here.”

Guiltily, Angel noted that Liam’s eyes were darting back and forth between them. Liam hated when Angel and Angelus fought. Loved brawling with strangers, but any tension at home was hard on him. Angel’s jaw tightened and he crossed his arms, determined not to let Angelus send him off the deep end. Liam didn’t like it.

“Please, _none_ of us have to work. Two words, baby: trust fund. I have one, you have one, he has one,” Angelus waved a finger towards Liam. They both tended to talk about him like he wasn’t in the room. “Fat enough that we never have to work a day in our lives, and I sure as hell intend to reap the rewards of that. Just because _you_ get off on playing the fucking martyr doesn’t mean—”

“I’ll do it.” At the agreeable interjection offered by Liam, both men turned towards their little brother, still crunching away on his burned scrambled eggs.

“What?”

“I’ll stay for the plumber.” Liam shrugged. “Wasn’t planning on going anywhere, anyway.”

“Oh. That would be a big help, if you don’t mind.” Angel shot a snide look towards Angelus, who seemed unruffled. Amused, even. Liam shrugged again. “Thanks kid.”

Liam mumbled “You’re welcome” around a mouthful of eggs, then paused and fished a fingernail-sized piece of shell out of his mouth. Stomach turning at the sight, Angel got up and started to leave the kitchen. He needed to get ready for work.

Angel had just stepped through into the living room when Angelus added, “Yeah, Lee, you’re a _real_ good boy.” Angel turned back in time to catch something strange passing between his brothers. There was something….

He shook the moment off, letting the door swing shut behind him. Those two had always had some strange connection Angel didn’t understand…freer than he was, somehow. Not weighted down by responsibility. The look was probably just one of those things between them that he’d never understand.

~*~*~*~

They were thirteen. Angel knew that, the same as he knew this was a dream. The same as he knew this was the apartment in New York where they’d lived at that age, one of the many real estate holdings his parents owned and shuffled them to, over the years.

Liam was crying. Liam had always been quick to cry and quick to comfort, never upset for long. Not like Angel, who would always shove the bad feelings down inside until he got tummy aches and headaches and nightmares. Not like Angelus, who always seemed like a rock, unmoveable to disappointment. Liam just bawled it out and was done with it. That was his strength.

Their parents had forgotten their birthday that year. The triplets had waited the whole day for them to arrive, but it was long past nightfall now, and Angel knew they weren’t going to show. He felt the disappointment bitterly, but he wasn’t all that surprised, even at that age. Liam, though, had been deeply wounded, inconsolable, crying so hard he could no longer breath through his nose, choking on the snot.

Angel tried to comfort him with a series of awkward pats and comfort-words that sounded unconvincing to his own ears, but it only made Liam cry harder. Angel’s stomach hurt. He didn’t know how to make it better, and was almost relieved when Angelus came into the room, sitting on the edge of Liam’s bedspread and gathering his lanky, quaking mass into his arms. Something loosened inside of Angel, because Angelus would make it ok.

And he did. Angelus petted Liam, stroking him and rubbing his back and murmuring the right things that Angel could never come up with. He not only made Liam feel better, he made _Angel_ feel better. Angelus muttered something to Liam that Angel didn’t hear, and Liam choked out a wet, phlegmy laugh, and Angelus grinned and kissed him on the cheek.

Except it didn’t land on his cheek.

It landed sort of on the corner of his mouth, and then Liam startled and looked up with big brown puppy eyes, wet with tears, and Angel’s whole body tightened as Angelus nuzzled an inch to the left and pressed his lips in that same firm, comforting manner to Liam’s. A kiss between brothers.

The moment that it had all changed was clear to Angel, still. Clear and _sharp_. Angel remembered that when Angelus pulled back from the chaste kiss, Liam’s eyes had remained fixed on Angelus’ lips, and he looked lost but also, like he had discovered something important, and it was _Liam_ who pressed back into Angelus the second time, and oh god, they were really kissing, the way he knew Angelus did with girls sometimes, in the back of the school bus. Kissing sloppy, like they were hot for each other, and it did funny things to Angel’s stomach, good things and bad things. Confusing things.

Angel felt duty-bound to object, somehow. Even though he was getting hard… _because_ he was getting hard. His voice felt raw in his throat. “Angelus, I don’t think you should….”

Angelus pulled back from Liam then but he didn’t look away from him. Everything was silent and still, frozen in time, and when Angelus’ tentative hand closed over Liam’s tented jeans, both Angel and Liam squeaked in surprise. The timid noise only made Angelus grow bolder. Made him push aside his uncertainty.

“Sshhh,” Angelus said, maybe to both of them. “Anybody ever done this to you before, Lee?” Angelus’ hand was stroking, stroking Liam through the denim. Liam’s eyes were squeezed shut tight as Angelus rubbed at him, and Angel wondered if his heart was pounding as hard as his own. Liam shook his head, a little plaintive noise slipping through. Angelus’ mouth tipped up at one end. “Feels amazing, doesn’t it?”

Liam could only pant in response, and Angel watched, unable to move as Angelus unfastened Liam’s pants and took his cock out and started to touch it with a sure hand, the way they all did to their own. It was surreal. Angel’s own cock throbbed in sympathy as Liam started to thrash, and Angel felt sick. They were old enough to know better. This wasn’t like when they were four and used to touch each other a little in the bath until their nanny found out and scolded them with horror in her voice. They’d been too little then to know it was wrong. Too young to know anything other than the fact that they liked each other, and it felt good. But this was….

Liam convulsed and came with a keening cry in Angelus’ lap and Angel was so startled that he bolted off the bed. Angel had no doubt he would have run out the door and just kept running, but Angelus shifted Liam aside and bolted after him. Angelus caught him by the shirt in a fist by the door and jerked him back, pulling him off-balance and Angel tumbled to the floor. Angelus climbed on top of him and after a short, violent struggle, wrestled Angel into a submissive posture, pinning him down on his back with his arms beside his head and his legs and hips trapped under Angelus’ own. Angelus was as hard as he was, and it made Angel shudder and turn his face away.

“Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy watching that, Angel,” Angelus murmured in his ear, grinding their hips together. “He needed that, and you know it. Look at him.” Angel did. Liam was asleep now, curled in a tight crescent along the edge of the bed where Angelus had left him. The boy was so exhausted with spent emotion that he hadn’t even stirred for their struggle.

He looked splotchy but peaceful. Reassured that he was loved by someone, after all. Thought of. Special. Angel closed his eyes. The result was good, but the means—

“Angelus, we can’t—” Angel sucked in a strangled breath when his cock was ground against a matching bulge. Heat shot through him, lust and love laced tightly with guilt and shame.

“We’re all we have, Ang. You know they don’t give a shit. Forget about it for now, ok? Just, feel this.” Angelus nudged him again with his hips, building a rhythm that made both of them flushed and sweaty, and Angel didn’t stop him like he should have. He didn’t stop him. Angel knew there was a real reason to object, but Angelus kept rocking against him, and it felt so good….

The second the fight went out of his body, Angelus released his arms and used his too-big hands to turn Angel’s head, and then they were kissing. It was Angel’s first kiss, and he was too surprised by the warmth of another mouth on his own, the wet slide of a tongue and the softness of lips, to think about the gender or the identity of who they were attached to. He ground up against Angelus, clutching his ass to bring him closer, and suddenly it wasn’t enough any more to just lay there, he needed to—

Angel rolled them abruptly, catching Angelus off-guard and landing on top. Angelus looked momentarily shocked before his expression shifted, smug and pleased, and then he was simply moaning Angel’s name, spreading for him, and it was intense and the hottest thing of Angel’s young life, making his ordinarily unreachable brother so blind with lust, and before long, they were both coming in their pants, heaving against each oth—

“Boss. …Boss. _BOSS_!”

Angel jerked awake. “Huh? Wzza?”

Angel’s secretary, Harmony Kendall, was standing in front of his desk, looking at him strangely. “Are you ok, Boss? It’s not like you to fall asleep. And you sounded kind of…sick. You were moaning—”

“Uh,” Angel interjected, sliding his chair further under his desk to hide the wet spot on the front of his slacks. “Did you, um, need something, Harmony?”

“Mrs. Wendell called again. She wants you to call her back about her case. I brought you the file.” Harmony handed over the accounting records he needed.

“Oh, ok. Thanks, Harmony.” They just stared at each other until Harmony got the picture and turned to leave his office.

She turned back again at the door. “Boss?”

Angel sighed irritably, scrubbing at his face. “ _What?_ ”

“Jeez, don’t have you get all testy. I’m just…are you sure you’re ok?”

Angel softened a little. Harmony was nosy, and kind of a ditz, but she meant well. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“…Okay, if you say so. Sounded like a bad nightmare though. Oh, and you have some drool….” She wiped at her mouth in demonstration, and left while he was cleaning it off.

Christ, speaking of sick. Where the hell had that dream come from? What kind of guy dreamed something like that? Especially so…vividly, like it was a memory rather than just some kind of twisted fantasy…well, of course not a fantasy, but…a thing….

It had never happened, of course. Well, part of it had. The forgotten birthday, and Liam crying. But Angel remembered what had happened after that. Liam had cried himself out, and Angelus had come in and said…something scathing, Angel didn’t remember what, and then they’d had ice cream and cake before all retiring to their rooms.

That was how it had happened. He remembered. There was no…touching, or kissing, or anything like that. Because that would have been weird, and wrong. It definitely hadn’t happened that way.

Couldn’t have.

Instead, he just had wet dreams about things like that.

Fuck.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Angel is repressed

Angel was strangely jumpy when he got home from work. When Liam greeted him at the door, he stammered and held his briefcase in front of his hips like a shield. Liam wondered if he’d gotten bad news or something. Angel never acted this way…shying away every time Liam came near and making excuses to avoid contact. Sure, he wasn’t the most _demonstrative_ guy, but he never acted like this. Not with Liam, anyway.

Angel had disappeared into his room shortly after that, and hadn’t come back out. Liam was bored. Angelus would be out late, with whoever he was out on a date with. Most likely she or he would keep Gus occupied until sunrise, as usual. Liam was _still_ recovering from his hangover, so calling up his drinking buddies held no appeal.

Eventually, he knocked on Angel’s door. There was a pause and a shuffle. “Come in,” Angel finally called.

Angel avoided his eyes. That was new.

“Um, Ang? I’m gonna watch a movie, one of the Jackie Chans. Wanna watch it with me?”

Angel met his eyes and then quickly looked away. “I dunno, kid, I had a rough day at work and I kind of need to—”

“Please?” Liam cajoled. Angel and Angelus liked to shelter him, but that could work in his favor sometimes. Both made allowances for him that they would never make for one another.

“Okay,” Angel finally conceded, in his self-sacrificing voice. Liam heard clearly in his head what Angelus would have said about that, and he hid a smile. “Just gimme a few minutes.”

Liam grinned at him. “Thanks, Ang!”

Liam had the movie set up in the home theater by the time Angel came downstairs, looking oddly flushed. “You feeling ok?”

Angel turned even redder. “Um, yeah. Mostly.”

Weird, but…that was Angel. Liam didn’t always understand the things he did. “Ok, I’m gonna go make popcorn.” Angel nodded and settled into the sofa.

Liam wanted popcorn, but really he just wanted Angel to pick a seat so that Liam could sit near him. Otherwise, Liam had come to learn, Angel would sit as far away from him as possible. Liam hated that.

He was humming “Kung Foo Fighting” when he reentered the room, shadow-boxing the air for emphasis and trying to make Angel smile. On a roundhouse kick, popcorn came flying out of the bowl and scattered, to Angel’s obvious dismay. Angel looked even more troubled when Liam flopped down on the couch next to him and sprawled out, head coming to rest in Angel’s lap. Liam pretended not to notice the disapproving frown. Angel never encouraged the impromptu snuggle-fests, but he usually allowed them, when Liam initiated.

This was no exception. Angel was stiff and awkward for a long time, but Liam remained casual, laughing at the movie and snacking on the popcorn, and gradually, Angel relaxed. Eventually a hand came down to pet Liam’s long locks, then it smoothed down to rest lightly on his shoulder.

Liam closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the calming buzz he got in the pit of his belly from sitting with Angel like this. Angel’s proximity was always soothing to him. It was the only time Liam could find himself a quiet moment, when he was with Angel. Liam thought that if he’d been able, the minute vibration he felt in the palms of his hands and the pit of his stomach would have bloomed into a loud steady purr.

“Liam—”

Liam opened his eyes to find his brother looking down at him with a troubled expression. Angel always took everything so seriously. Thought too much. Maybe not as much as Angelus, but it was a different kind of thinking. “Yeah, Ang?”

Angel opened his mouth to say something…something that Liam didn’t think he wanted to hear right now, so Liam smiled, rolled onto his back and held Angel’s hand against his face, rubbing his cheek into it to try to sooth him. Angel only looked more upset at the gesture.

But Liam felt the cock pressed to his face twitch with interest beneath the denim fly.

Liam hesitated for a moment, caught between impulse and uncertainty, shy with his own sobriety…but Angel hadn’t showed an interest in so long. _So_ long. Liam ached with the possibility that Angel was coming back to him.

Could he take that step, without Angelus? Angelus always knew what to do. He said it was just love, and it didn’t hurt anybody. That’s what Angelus always told him, and Angelus was a smart guy who looked out for Liam.

Feeling naked and frightened, Liam turned and rubbed his face against Angel’s crotch. He offered himself up. The denim was harsh against his face, and he could feel the stiffening ridge of Angel’s cock under the fabric. Warm feelings pooled in Liam’s belly when he was rewarded by a gasp…an expression of bliss. Angel’s mouth gaped in shock or desire, like his lungs were pressed flat by the strength of what he was feeling, and Liam smiled up at him.

Abruptly, Liam was dumped on the floor as Angel shot to his feet. Liam’s head cracked painfully on the coffee table and his vision swam black for a moment. When he regained it, he saw Angel’s retreating back slamming out of the entertainment room.

He hadn’t even stopped to ask if Liam was alright.

~*~*~*~

Liam fell asleep in Angelus’ bed that night, curled naked into the sheets against his brother’s comforting scent. He never came in here. When he and Angelus were…together, it was always in Liam’s own room. Angelus’ room was generally like a lion’s den. You didn’t enter when he was sleeping, because it was dangerous to disturb him from slumber, and you didn’t enter when he was gone, because he was territorial and quick to anger about his possessions.

Liam hadn’t hesitated to crawl into the big bed tonight, seeking it on instinct like a wounded animal trying to find a bolt-hole. He felt oddly raw inside after Angel’s rejection, and his own lingering sorrow confused him. Liam never stayed sad for long, but he couldn’t brush this off because he didn’t quite understand it. Sometimes Liam felt funny about the things he did with Angelus, but he could never turn his back on Gus. Never.

And it wasn’t as if he and Angel hadn’t done things like that together before…lots of times. Only they never talked about that, anymore.

Liam drifted asleep to memories of sweet adolescent fumblings, comforting himself by resting a hand on his own cock. He slept fitfully and awoke the exact same way he’d fallen asleep, only now Angelus was standing over the bed looking at him darkly. Weak morning light poured in through the curtains.

Liam blinked and rubbed at his eye. “Oh. Hi, ‘Gelus. Good date?” He offered his glowering brother a small smile. Sleep had wiped clean the worst of his moroseness, but he still felt achy and hollow.

Angelus crossed his arms over his chest, and Liam hugged the covers up over his body. That only seemed to make Angelus a little madder. “What are you doing in here,” Angelus demanded harshly.

“I…I don’t know….”

“Well get the hell out. I’m tired, and I want to go to sleep without you being a cover whore.” Angelus tried to tear the sheets out of Liam’s hand but Liam held on tight.

“Angelus, don’t make me, ok? I just need…Angel made me feel bad, and I just want….”

Liam regretted his careless words as soon as Angelus’ eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, Angel made you feel bad?”

“Um…never mind, I was just being….”

“Liam. Tell me now, or leave.”

Angelus didn’t make idle threats, and Liam didn’t want to be alone. “Well, I…touched him and he sort of freaked out and I fell and hit my head—”

Angelus was out the door before Liam recognized the force of his fury. Liam sat for a minute, dazed, but the sudden shouting downstairs prompted him to wrap the sheet around him, taking the stairs two at a time. It sounded as though they were going to kill each other.

He found them in the kitchen. Angelus had Angel by his pressed shirt, pinned against the wall. He looked pissed. They both did, actually. One of Angelus’ hands was wrapped around Angel’s throat.

Liam’s stomach churned. “Guys—”

They ignored him, as they always did.

Angelus gritted his teeth. “Don’t you _ever_ …Just because you can’t handle your own pussy guilt, doesn’t mean you can ever take it out on him, do you hear me?” Angelus was shaking Angel by his shirt, slamming him back into the wall repeatedly.

“What…I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about, you psycho. We just watched a movie—”

“You pushed him down and he hit his head, you asshole.”

Angel looked angry at the accusation, and then startled. “I did not…. You hit your head, Lee? When? Are you ok?” There was nothing but love and concern in his brother’s eyes, and Liam’s gut twisted.

“I’m fine.”

“No thanks to you,” Angelus spat. “You are such a self-righteous little prick.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Get off of me.”

There was a moment where the boys were too close together, at a stalemate, and the tension hummed between them. Then Angel twisted away and Angelus let him go.

They stood there for a moment, not looking at one another, silently fuming, and then Angelus spun on his heel. “I’m going to bed. Nobody wake me,” he growled, and then stormed off, slamming the kitchen door behind him. Insomuch as you could ever slam a swinging door.

Angel turned concerned eyes on Liam, and stepped tentatively closer. “You hit your head, Lee?” Warmth bloomed at the nickname. Angel only ever called him that when he was sick.

Liam touched the back of his head, confirming the goose egg to himself. It was tender and his head still throbbed, but he made sure not to flinch. “Yeah, but I’m ok now,” he fibbed. Angel’s face immediately smoothed out.

A smile tugged at the corner of Angel’s mouth. “How’d you do that, anyway?”

Liam gawked at Angel, incredulous, but he could see that Angel was completely serious. He must not have known…. But he should have been able to pinpoint _when_ it had happened, and why.

As the minutes ticked by, Liam became embarrassed under the expectation of an answer. “Um, you know me. Not too coordinated.”

Angel bestowed upon him a rare, beautiful smile. “Yeah, little brother, I know.” He pulled Liam in gently but playfully and planted a kiss on his mussed hair.

“Want eggs?”

Liam frowned at the offer. He got the distinct impression that Angel was apologizing for something, but that was so confusing, since Angel didn’t even seem to remember the thing he should be apologizing for.

But Angel made eggs way better than Liam did, and he was starving. “Yes, please.”

Liam sat down at the kitchen table, tucking the bedsheet around his hips, and watched his brother tinker at the stove for a moment, trying to figure Angel out.

He was convinced he never would.

Liam tried to shrug off the morbid thoughts, and reached for the funny pages.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Angelus consoles Liam…often

“Oh. Oh, Angelus.”

Liam’s body squirmed as Angelus’ mouth slid and twisted around his cock, trapped beneath Angelus’ gently restraining hands. Liam breathed hard in little lusty prayers. Angelus could smell the whiskey on his breath from here, but for once, the drink was a mere formality. Liam had needed this union after Angel’s rejection. He’d been begging for it silently all day, with innocent but provocative little gestures that he must know inflamed Angelus’ desire to drive himself into that sweet body.

And yet, Liam still needed the booze as an excuse…as a scapegoat for his own actions. It rankled at Angelus, but he didn’t push the matter. Liam had already been traumatized enough today already.

Angelus rolled Liam’s thighs up, opening his body. When he teased his tongue against the edge of Liam’s hole, Liam’s body seized up in a sharp cry. Liam was looking down at him, eyes hazy with lust and drunkenness. Desperate. Little Liam, always so eager for attention. For affection.

Angel was such a prick for denying him. And a fool, as well.

Angelus’ tongue stabbed through the shy aperture of Liam’s body, and Liam began to pant and sweat at the slick muscle thrusting against his sensitive tissue.

“Ah! Ah, fuck…’Gelus…love you. Love you so much.”

Angelus rolled his eyes. His brother was such a sentimental fool when he was intoxicated. Quick to show his soft underbelly, which he had hidden years ago with his good-natured carousing. His brothers were the only ones to be shown Liam’s vulnerability any more. It was the reason Angelus was able to get Liam to spread for him when he was in his cups…Liam missed the way that it used to be. When they were all partners in criminal pleasure.

Liam missed Angel too, but that was going to take some more doing. That boy was in denial, capital D. Angelus wasn’t willing to wait forever though—and if he made Liam cry a little louder than was prudent when Angel was home, and if it was only eight in the evening when Angel was sure to be awake, then all the better. Angelus’ anger made him strategically reckless.

When Angelus was finished preparing Liam with a searching tongue and deft fingers, he sank inside, reveling in the view. Liam’s thick thighs were pulled back to frame his well-muscled torso. He had just a tiny bit of a beer gut these days, but it was still solid muscle underneath, and anyway, it was true what they said about more cushion. Liam’s cock curved, hard and eager, against his belly, and his sack hung full above where he was penetrated.

It didn’t hurt that Liam’s goods were the same as Angelus’ own. What a fuckin’ head trip. How the hell Angel could push this away in the name of _morals_ was beyond him.

Liam was looking up at him, chewing on his lip even though his face was slack with pleasure. Fucking pansy-ass Angel had made their little brother feel bad about himself. Angelus leaned down and plied him with a few strategically soft kisses, but he couldn’t stop the hunger from slipping through as his hips began to twitch, instinctively trying to possess.

Angelus braced himself up and aimed one stabbing thrust at Liam’s prostate.

“Gus!” Liam gasped.

Fuck. Angelus decided to just let the name go this time. Liam’d had a rough day. He started pumping roughly into Liam’s squeezing heat, and Liam whimpered.

“Fuck, baby, you like that?” Angelus worked them up to a nice steady pace. Hell yeah.

Liam moaned. “Yeah, Gus…God!”

“Yeah, baby, I know what you need, don’t I?”

Liam nodded, panting, and in the relative silence, Angelus heard something odd. Something that gave him pause.

Literally. And Liam didn’t like that at all, the little slut, and began to shift restlessly beneath him. “’Gelus—” Angelus pushed a finger over Liam’s lips. The sound in the hallway stopped abruptly, but it was too late.

Angelus knew what it was. And who.

Well, if Angel was going to stand in the hallway, hiding behind the door while he jacked off to the sound of them fucking, then they were going to give him a show.

Angelus started fucking Liam again so abruptly and with such fervor that Liam cried out, startled. He wondered if any amount of crying from Liam would bring Angel in to the ‘rescue.’ Probably not. He’d stand out there and crank himself raw, but he’d die before he let himself be known. Angel was a real piece of work.

“Aww, fuck, Liam. So good, baby. You like it when I fuck you?”

Liam’s body jarred with the force of Angelus’ attention, the sound of their bodies smacking together clearly audible. “Yeah,” he murmured.

“Louder, Lee. Wanna hear what I do to you. Are you my boy?”

Liam moaned and arched when Angelus took hold of his cock. “Yeah, Gus…yours. Fuck me.”

Angelus grinned as he imagined Angel’s face on the other side of that door. He let his other hand card through Liam’s hair, and then tugged, just hard enough to make Liam moan his name. His whole name.

“You’re such a little slut for me, Liam. Such a good boy. Spread for me anytime I want, don’t you?”

Liam made weak affirmative noises, and Angelus pounded forward into his body, on the verge of too hard. Angelus’ eyes rolled back, so turned on by his own game—the dirty words and the thought of Angel on the other side of that door, listening. Listening as he stripped his own cock, feeling dirty and ill but so turned on he couldn’t walk away….

“ _Fuck!_ ” Angelus’ own state of arousal rocketed at the image, and without anticipating it, he shot his load inside of Liam, blind for a moment in the face of it, and then he was withdrawing to crouch over Liam, pulling his brother off roughly and thrusting his fingers inside Liam’s hole on his own jizz to massage at that magic spot. To make Liam howl like he wanted him to.

Liam’s face scrunched with the coming orgasm, panting desperately, and then his hips pumped upwards and he spurted against the tan skin of his own belly and chest, a shaky wordless animal moan ripped from his chest.

Angelus collapsed back on the bed besides Liam, who was too woozy now to be of any use. He listened carefully and was rewarded by a small choked sound from the hallway. It wasn’t hard to imagine Angel’s mortification at his own actions—he was probably self-flagellating before he’d even finished shooting his load. When Angelus heard the rapid retreat of footsteps confirming his suspicion, it only made him grin wider.

One step closer, and it hadn’t even required extra effort on his part.

This was gonna be fun.

~*~*~*~

Angelus started fucking Liam raw—at all hours of the day, but only when Angel was home. He was laying the bait, setting a trap. A net that would encircle their guilt-ridden brother, leaving him bound and tangled and helpless before he could realize just how ensnared he really was.

It was fun. Because Angel took the bait now, every time.

Most of the time, they still fucked in Liam’s room. Angelus took to narrating their positions, Liam’s reactions and how hot Liam made him. Sometimes it was raunchy. He called Liam an enthusiastic little cocksucker, a naughty little slut, his good little boy.

But they’d need honey to catch Angel as well, so when Angelus let himself be more tender with their little brother, he verbalized that as well. Called Liam by sweet endearments and even told him that he loved him, that no one made him feel this good, this wanted. Angelus hoped—knew—that those times in particular brought Angel a wash of bitter loneliness that would drive him back into their arms. Eventually.

The bonus was, Liam flowered under Angelus’ attentions, thoroughly oblivious to their audience. He never objected now, when Angelus grabbed him by his cock and took him for a ride. Liam self-medicated with booze in smaller and smaller doses. A bottle was always at the ready, but it was becoming more of a formality than anything. A little something to dull his residual nerves…his lingering shame.

They’d be dispatching of that shortly, Angelus decided. He wanted Liam clear-eyed and hot for him, not bleary and numb, and now it seemed that it might be plausible to get him naked while sober. Soon.

A few weeks after Angel had first heard them fucking, Angelus decided to shake it up a little. He started jumping Liam in other rooms of the house, making it loud enough that Angel would hear them well before he might walk in on them. It was too soon for that. But Angelus wanted to startle Angel, to make him want them more urgently.

So he bent Liam over the kitchen table and gave him a good, hard, _loud_ seeing to. And they fucked in the office, the living room, the shower—even in their parents rarely-used suite. Angelus coaxed Liam into giving him head on the sofa in the entertainment room, where Angel had rejected the same offer.

Angel always found them, like clockwork. Angelus imagined him again and again, standing in the hall, shifting from foot to foot nervously while he pulled at his own cock. Face flushed, lip plumped from biting it with apprehension.

It was almost time. All Angelus needed was to find a way to get Angel a little more…in the moment.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Angel begins to crack

Angel was slowly losing his mind.

That was the only explanation for it.

That was the only reasonable explanation for the way he listened, again and again, as Angelus took advantage of Liam, using his body and calling him dirty names. It was the only explanation for the vivid images of the _three_ of them that had begun haunting him, in waking and in sleep.

It was the only explanation for the way Angel’s body, and his imagination, were instantly inflamed by the graphic things his brothers said to one another until he was sweating, flushed and hard and dying with shame and desire.

Angel should have rushed into Liam’s room and put a stop to it the very first time. He knew that Liam couldn’t really want what was happening. It had to be Angelus’ manipulative logic and domineering manner making their baby brother beg Angelus— _beg_ him, sobbing and moaning—to fuck him harder. Angel should have burst into the room, any number of times, and put a stop to the madness.

But he hadn’t. How could he, sporting the erection that always came, no matter how much it sickened him? Angelus would never let him forget about it, once he saw what their illicit trysts did to him. He must never find out how often Angel listened in, and—god—touched himself, pulling himself furiously to overwhelming orgasms that left him feeling sick and dirty and wrong.

And utterly lonely.

You don’t have to be, a little voice said. You weren’t always. And Angel _knew_ he was in trouble when the voice in his head sounded like Angelus. But the urgings meant nothing, because Angelus and Liam had each other, now.

And Angel was just stuck on the outside, alone and forgotten.

~*~*~*~

Angel was exhausted—cranky and wanting nothing more than to retire to his room in peace. Work had been awful. Harmony was sick, out all week, and the phones were ringing off the hook. The Bergmans weren’t happy with their tax returns, and Mrs. Wendell wanted him to start over from scratch on her account—no laughable task with a net worth that large.

So Angel was grateful that the boys both appeared to be out. He didn’t hear them on his way from the front door to his own suite, and he was grateful that he could make it to the privacy of his own room without being waylaid by conversation…or anything else.

Angel had just turned the corner of his corridor when he heard them.

In his room.

Liam’s voice was only a little muffled through the closed door of his bedroom. “Oh god—An- _Angel!_ Please, I need it. Don’t tease….”

Angel stopped cold, fatigue forgotten in light of hearing _his own name_ falling from Liam’s lips, a breathless moan. His heart was pounding, sending hot pulses of blood straight to the cock rising in his slacks. Angel could scarcely breath, wondering why the hell Liam would be calling out to him, instead of Angelus.

Angelus’ answering tone was silky, persuasive. “You have to tell me what you want first, little brother.”

“Angelus, I need—” A sharp crack of flesh on flesh rent the air, and Liam cried out in a way that was not at all distressed. Angel’s whole body coiled tight.

“What’s my name, little one?” Angelus sounded deadly serious. “What’s my name when we play this game?”

“But you’re not acting like—” There was another slap, and Angel imagined Liam’s ass cheek heating with the blow. His cock throbbed, even before Liam continued: “Angel! You’re Angel.”

Angel dropped his briefcase in shock. Eyes wide, heart racing, he stepped closer to the door…just a little, involuntary shuffle.

Angelus’ voice was different when he spoke—calm, quiet, and startlingly like Angel’s own. “That’s right. It hurts to hear you call me by that other name, Lee. You know I’m nothing like Angelus. I just want what’s best for you.”

It made Angel shudder—it was like hearing himself speaking to Liam. So weary and tired and guilt-ridden, and did he really sound like that? So _old?_

“I know.” Liam’s voice quavered with unspilled tears. “Angel, I miss you. You never touch me like you used to. Why don’t you love me anymore?”

Liam’s plea was sincere, and it shot straight to Angel’s heart. It might be just a game for Angelus, but Liam’s genuine melancholy was clear to him. Angel had to fight not to reach for the doorknob, to enter and reassure the boy he’d always taken care of. Always cared for.

“Aww, Lee.” There was a shuffle, and Angel pictured Angelus pulling their brother into an embrace. When he heard a sniffle, he was sure of it. Angelus didn’t break character. “Course I still love you, Lee. But….” Angel thought he heard real regret, real sadness, color Angelus’ words. It surprised him, despite the moments of tenderness he’d heard passing between them on other occasions. Angelus never regretted anything.

It was what Angel resented the most about him.

Angel felt a wash of shame when all of the words that he would have filled in next went unspoken. _It’s wrong. We shouldn’t do this. It’s a sin._ Angelus’ reluctance to speak them aloud coiled like a cold, dead thing in the pit of Angel’s stomach. That Angelus was reluctant to hurt Liam in a way that Angel would—

Had, he corrected himself. He _had_ said those things, and more…worse. Memories were coming back to him these past weeks, undeniable.

Angel remembered…things. Things he wished he could forget. Things that he wished horrified him, or made him feel something other than aching nostalgia and loneliness. And guilt. Let’s not forget that.

Angel’s self-pity was interrupted when he heard Liam begin to sob through the door. Angel imagined his soft face contorted with tears and pain…fingers twisting in Angelus’ shirt…if he was still wearing one.

Liam was growing hysterical. “Angel… _please_! We can…we can pretend it never happened, like all the times before, I just need…I _need_ you, _please_ , I—” Liam hiccoughed a few ragged sobs and it tore Angel’s heart out. He had done this to Liam. Made his carefree brother weep like his heart was breaking…or already broken. “Me and Angelus, we miss you so much. He—”

Liam’s words were muffled suddenly by Angelus’ mouth. Angel pressed in closer to the door. The hard unyielding wood gave up a few of its secrets—whimpers and gasps. Whispered words of comfort. He heard Angelus murmur “I’m sorry,” and Angel knew, as he knew the minds of both of his brothers, that the situation had gone beyond what Angelus had intended. He hadn’t expected Liam to react this way.

That Liam had such grieving pain in his heart for Angel—he felt it as his own, was heavy with it. He pressed a palm to the door, wishing…wishing he could just….

Angel’s own eyes were filling with tears when he heard a pleasured gasp. “Angel.”

“I’ve got you, baby,” Angelus murmured. “Not gonna hurt you anymore…just wanna make you feel good. Can I, Lee?”

Angel wasn’t sure whether Angelus was speaking on his own behalf or on Angel’s. But did it matter? They were, all three of them, composed of the same threads, woven into 3 different patterns, yes, but the raw material was the same. He spoke for them both…because Angel was far too much of a coward.

“Please,” Liam answered, voice small and choked. It bloomed into a moan, long and low and increasingly bold, embellished with murmurs of _Angel’s_ name and other little nothings. Angel’s cock throbbed as he tried to imagine what Angelus was doing. Maybe he was fondling Liam with his hand, so much like Angel’s own…or maybe his lips were wrapped around Liam’s cock, cheeks hollowed with suction. Maybe when Liam looked down on Angelus’ face, he thought his hand was tangled in _Angel’s_ short hair instead.

Eventually Angelus spoke. “No more denial, Lee. I promise. No more treating you badly because of my own guilt.” The words speared Angel, holding him wriggling and wounded and shameful of his own behavior…and conflicted. Shouldn’t shame come from _giving in_ to these desires, instead of from holding them at bay?

His confusion was interrupted by a loud, grateful cry—the sound of Angelus pushing his way inside of Liam’s body. An incomprehensible litany of gratitude issued from Liam’s mouth, while Angelus moaned and murmured little words of praise about how good Liam was, how tight, how hot and sweet and beloved.

The bedsprings began to squeak in rapid rhythm. Angel gripped the doorframe tightly in his hands, breathing labored, cock so hard it hurt. He itched to touch himself, but he didn’t deserve it. Didn’t deserve to take pleasure in the sound of Angelus cleaning up his mess for him. Or sullying something precious. He didn’t understand his own mind anymore. Didn’t understand which this was.

Their breathing was audible beyond the door, big ragged breaths belying their excitement. He could imagine them rocking together frantically, sweaty, men’s bodies now instead of the boys they had been, before he’d run away. Their beautiful bodies tangled in one another on _his_ sheets, in _his_ bed, where they belonged. Identical faces slack and flushed and intense with their own rising need. They belonged to him.

Angel could picture it with intense clarity. Could picture their muscles bunching, their eager, messy kisses, their dilated pupils and the sheen of their skin. He had never seen them actually fuck—had fled the bed the very night Angelus wanted to push it that far—but he could imagine, feverishly, and his shirt was soaked through with sweaty lust. Angel’s whole body was taut to the point of shaking as he listened, hands still clamped firmly on the doorjam, forehead pressed desperately against the cool wood of the door.

Angelus’ voice was rough with passion. He was panting with the effort of fucking their brother. “That’s it, baby, almost there. Come for me, Liam—”

Angel could hear the distinct slapping of flesh as Angelus jacked Liam to his end. Liam screamed as he came, hoarsely, and it was Angel’s name mixed in with a babble of come-words, and Angel himself grunted through gritted teeth as the tension in his body popped and he flooded his still-fastened work slacks at the sound of his name, hips pumping instinctively against nothing.

Angel could have sworn, _sworn_ , that it was his own sound of completion that triggered Angelus to swear hotly until the creak of the mattress slowed gradually to a halt.

Angel’s knees shook under his own weight, now that the desire had left him. He sagged against the door, and all was quiet inside.

Until he heard a little sound, barely perceptible. Angel couldn’t say what it was, or that he even fully registered it, until there was an audible shifting of bodies, and a murmur of “Don’t cry, Lee…please, don’t cry.”

After the acknowledgement, the sound of Liam’s weeping became undeniable. Unbearable. Inconsolable and ragged, just as they had been the day of their thirteenth birthday. Angel hadn’t heard Liam cry since that day. The day it had all begun.

Angel felt bile rise in his throat—at himself, at his brothers, at his complete and utter confusion. Most of all, at the sound of Liam’s heart breaking, which was all his fault. All his fault, and he didn’t know what was right anymore.

Angel turned and ran.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tide, it is a-turnin’.

“Angelus, no that’s—I can’t do that. Don’t ask me to do that.” Liam felt a renewed wave of nausea when Angelus wasn’t budged by his pleading. He just stood, impassive, hand still wrapped around Liam’s arm, restraining him from making his trip towards the dresser.

Liam looked balefully at the bottle that was waiting for him. Only four feet from where he stood, but it might as well be miles.

When Liam turned back to his brother, Angelus’ eyes were a little harder. “I wasn’t asking.”

Liam tried to hold his rising panic in check. Angelus could be persuaded from something he wanted, if you knew how to go about it, and he’d been especially generous these last few weeks. Ever since that night that Liam had drank too much and taken their Angel-game too seriously. Liam was still a little embarrassed of his own reaction. A grown man shouldn’t act that way, but somehow with Angelus…. Anyway, he knew Angelus felt bad about making him cry, acting strange when Liam pointed out how scarce Angel had become recently. Angelus felt guilty, and Liam had milked it for all it was worth.

But it seemed like the charity had run out, in spades.

“C’mon, ‘Gelus, I swear I won’t overdo it this time. I just wanna wind down a little. Hard day at the office,” he joked, trying to schmooze his way into favor. They all knew that ‘Liam’ and ‘a hard day’s work’ didn’t belong in the same sentence. Ever.

Angelus didn’t crack a smile. “I said no. Period.” Liam gaped a bit at the flat response. “Listen to me, Lee. This is how it’s gonna be, take it or leave it. We do this sober, or we don’t do it at all. I’m sick of fucking a drunk.”

Liam cringed at that. “Gus,” he pleaded. The soft entreaty in his voice was far from put-on. His chest felt banded tight, nausea clawing up sickly from his gut. “I can’t do this without…. Please, don’t ask me. I can’t.”

An unfamiliar expression ghosted over Angelus’ face. A little slice of pain, there for only a split second before it was tucked away. “You can. I do.”

Liam’s stomach did a slow, sick roll to see the chink in his brother’s invincible armor. It was hard for him to tell, most of the time, how much of Angelus’ emotions were sincere and how much was careful manipulation, but Gus hadn’t meant to show him that. He wasn’t _that_ good of actor.

Liam didn’t think Angelus would ever make good on his threat to cut him off. After all, wasn’t it Gus that had lured him back time and again when Liam tried to end this thing? He’d tried to walk away from it dozens of times over the years, but he didn’t have Angel’s conviction. He crumpled under the first seductive pressure.

He wasn’t Angel and he wasn’t Angelus. They’d both drawn a line, and stayed stubbornly on their own side. They knew what they wanted, no doubts. Liam was the one in the middle, yanked back and forth. Trapped between what he should do and what he _wanted_ to do, in this guilty no-man’s land.

And he’d never wondered how it made Gus feel, that someone he loved could only stand to touch him when he had whiskey in his veins.

It was time to make a real decision. He just wished his heart wasn’t pounding hard enough to punch out of his rib cage.

“Yeah, ok. Sober.”

Angelus actually looked mildly surprised, like he hadn’t expected it to go so easy, but his restraining hand eased off of Liam’s arm. Liam looked away from the sharpness of his gaze, self-conscious and awkward. His arms felt like heavy, useless appendages—he had no clue what to do with them. He brought them up to clutch at his biceps, arms cradled against each other. Dropped them again and stuffed them into his pockets when he realized that it looked like he was hugging himself.

“So, um….” The whole situation felt distorted for being so clear and unfiltered. He went and sat on the edge of his bed, hands coming to lace together in his lap. Gus came to stand in front of him, and Liam’s eyes skittered to the belt in front of his face before flitting up to Angelus’ unreadable expression and away.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, you look like a virgin on her wedding night.” Angelus’ tone was gruff, but there was no real roughness in the way that he pushed Liam back onto the mattress and settled himself on top.

Liam held his breath in the moment before the kiss, in the pause that felt important. He hadn’t so much as kissed his brother sober since they were 16. Since Angel had run out on them. Since it was thrown in his face once and for all what a sick abomination this was. The day that things had gotten weird around here, and had never gone back to being normal.

The press of Angelus’ mouth was uncharacteristically unassuming—not greedy. It was…grateful, and their eyes remained open as Angelus pushed them out deeper. Liam let his tongue in when it probed quietly at his lips, and he lifted his torso cooperatively for Gus to remove his shirt.

Liam’s breath hitched when Angelus reached for his fly, and he turned away from his brother’s kiss when a warm hand closed over his cock. He drew clean draughts of air into his lungs as Angelus kissed his throat, and his heart squeezed from the tenderness even though his gut was churning. The way that Gus fondled him was so familiar (hadn’t he been the first?), but it felt strange just now.

As clearly as if it were yesterday, he could hear his brother’s voice: _you’re sinners. You’ll always be sinners_. So much like Da that it cleaved the flesh from his bones.

Liam didn’t register his own stiffness until Angelus’ weight lifted and the other man climbed off the bed altogether. Liam sat up. “Gus?”

Angelus’ back remained turned on him, and one frustrated hand came up to rub through his hair. “Never mind. I don’t feel like it anymore.”

Well… _that_ had sure as hell never happened before. “’Gelus?”

“I don’t fuck people who don’t want me, Liam.” He was sure that Angelus’ growl wasn’t supposed to sound more wounded than angry. Liam caught him by the arm as he charged from the room, yanking him back into a hard kiss.

This time it was Gus who tried to pull away, but Liam wouldn’t allow it. Couldn’t lose Angelus too. Wouldn’t. He backed Gus towards the bed, and for once it was Liam pushing his brother onto his back.

He pulled Gus’s shirt away mouthing at the muscle of his chest. The oddly soft skin of his belly. “I’m sorry,” he told it. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” until the flesh gave and relaxed. Until one big hand came down to rest on the top of Liam’s head and fingers carded through his hair fondly like forgiveness.

It was Liam who stripped off two pair of pants and slicked Angelus’ cock with an unsteady hand. Angelus just watched him, face soft and eyes sharp.

It wasn’t until Liam straddled Gus’s hips and bore down on his cock without ever touching himself that Angelus struggled to sit up.

Liam pushed him back down. “No, I’m ok,” he panted, but Gus was clearly skeptical. It did hurt. There was a burn as he sank down on Angelus, but they’d been fucking more frequently, so it wasn’t too bad. He welcomed the small measure of pain…he was normally so dulled by the alcohol. He needed it.

When he came to a rest against Angelus’ hips, he had to blink back the sheen of pain from his eyes. Angelus was watching him. “Lee—”

For five seconds of his life, he didn’t want to be the baby, the one that needed looking after. So Liam leaned in and kissed Angelus, and once he had his attention, began to work himself slowly on Gus’s cock until his body relaxed into the task.

But Liam kept it slow. Cupped Gus’s face in hands that were just as large as the ones running down his back and teased him _his_ way with his tongue. It was so hard to get Angelus to be this way with him, he wouldn’t give up the opportunity now that he had it.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured again, rocking their bodies together a little faster.

Angelus’ hands tightened into his hair. “Liam, don’t—” Broke off on a groan when Liam sat up and began fucking him in earnest, hands curling into the lightly haired muscle of Gus’s thighs as he rode him, panting. His hair fell in his face as he watched the features so like his own contort and curse, and it wasn’t long before Angelus’ hands found a firm grip on Liam’s hips.

“’Gelus…Christ, I love it when you fuck me….”

One minute Liam was undulating on Gus’s lap getting off on the control and the next he was flat on his back being driven into by a man whose face was dark with lust. He couldn’t say he was complaining about the shift, especially when Angelus hefted his legs over his shoulders and bent him in half, thrusting deep.

Liam shouted hoarsely and dug his nails into his brother’s shoulders as Angelus took hold of his cock and quickly pulled him off, eyes boring down into his. His eyes rolled back just as Gus rammed home one final time, and when their hearts were both hammering in the sudden silence, Liam felt like things were simple again, for the moment.

Lately those moments never lasted long.

~*~*~*~*~

“I’m going away for a while.”

It was classic Angelus, with none of the softness of their earlier encounter. Abrupt and frank. Liam felt ambushed.

“Wh…for how long?”

“A few weeks. Darla wants to take a trip to New York, get a room with a view. Get away for a bit.”

“Oh.” Darla was the closest thing Angelus had ever had to a steady girlfriend. There was no real fidelity between them but they knew it, and there was an understanding of sorts there. Liam found her a bit intimidating but he was strangely drawn to her, even though she didn’t respect him like she did Gus.

Angel hated her guts.

But the bottom line was that if Darla wanted to go to New York, she and Angelus were going to New York. There was no point in Liam even arguing. Even if a few weeks did sound like eternity, and he had no idea what he’d do. Gus had been around so much lately.

“When are you leaving?”

“Oh, tomorrow I should think.”

“Tomorrow!” Liam pulled away from Angelus. The air still smelled heavily of sex, and tomorrow Gus would be gone. That’s what this had been about then…one last game to bend Liam’s will before Angelus ran off with his girlfriend. “You should have told me sooner.”

“Why, so you could pout about it for days? Sometimes you can be as bad as Angel, when you get your teeth in something.”

Liam turned away, ignoring the fact that he was pouting even as Angelus spoke. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Come on, Lee, don’t be such a drama queen. You’ve been blowing off your buddies for weeks, call them up. I’ll be back before the hangover’s worn off.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“Yeah, I know it.” Gus pulled him back up the bed with an arm around his waist, and Liam let him. When he was leaned back against the headboard, he risked a pouty glance down at Angelus, who was propped up on one elbow beside him.

“You know, I’m not the only brother that has the hots for you around here,” Gus said finally, and before Liam could say anything, he was biting and licking the tender skin on the side of Liam’s ribs, kick-starting his breath faster.

“Yeah right, Angel’s not—”

“You and I both know better, Lee. You think he stopped wanting you that day? Hell no. Why do you think he’s such an uptight son of a bitch? He may have convinced himself he hates my guts, but he misses _you_ , baby brother.”

Liam didn’t say anything, just chewed his lip. Angelus was rarely wrong when it came to people, but he remembered how it had gone the last time he’d gotten brave enough to come on to Angel.

“If anyone can bring him back into the fold, it’s you, Lee. He’d sooner spit than look at me. You’re it, if we ever want him back again.”

“Because that went so well last time. He _ran away_.”

Angelus smirked and looked up at him with hot mischief, mouth tickling Liam’s ribs. “Then you’ll just have to find a way to keep him still, won’t you?”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which prey becomes predator…sorta.

Angel came awake suddenly out of a dead sleep, sharply inhaling his surprise, groggy and disoriented. The pillow next to his cheek was a little damp with drool, and he cringed as he mopped up his face. It was then he noticed what had awoken him.

His bedroom door was open and the gold light from the hallway was spilling across his floor. Liam’s form was silhouetted against the light, leaning heavily onto the frame. The backlighting obscured his features into shades of gray, but Angel could see enough to know that his little brother was thoroughly sloshed.

Of course he was.

“What do you want, Liam.”

“You.” Angel tensed as Liam stumbled a little farther into the room, but then Lee flashed him a big, affable smile. “Don’t look at me like that, Ang, I jus’ want a lil company.”

Angel studied him, still wary. He turned towards the large red numbers that clearly read 4:32. “Jesus Christ, at five in the morning, Lee? You don’t need company, you need to sleep it off.” He was forced to move over when Liam fell heavily onto the bed beside him.

“Thought I could do both,” he mumbled into the pillow.

Angel shouldn’t allow it. “Liam….”

Soft brown eyes cracked open to regard him in a bleary, unfocused way. “Come on, Ang, just for tonight? I miss Angelus.” Angel almost choked on the straightforward implication that Liam was used to having their other brother in his bed. “I don’ like it when we’re all three not together. House feels wrong without him, I won’ sleep.”

Angel took in the hangdog expression and sighed. “Fine, just tonight. But go rinse your mouth out or something, you smell like a whiskey factory.” He jumped at the smacking kiss he received on the cheek before Liam slid out of bed and weaved into his bathroom for the Scope. And to piss out more of his liquor, no doubt.

Angel was drifting back off when the edge of the covers lifted and a weight settled beside him onto the mattress. Then Liam’s warm body was pressing into his side, wriggling up under his arm.

“Liam—” he started warningly, but it didn’t stop his little brother from wrapping his long limbs around him. Lee must have stripped off his clothes in the bathroom. His chest and his legs were bare, and Angel just thanked Christ he was still wearing boxers.

A cold nose pressed into his throat, and Liam’s breath was hot and humid fanning out over his collarbone. “Lee—” he tried again, but Liam just squeezed his arms tighter across his chest and mumbled something incoherent into his skin.

And then promptly began to snore.

Angel sighed, trying not to smile and not quite making it. That was Lee. There was nothing awkward to the baby of the family about cuddling up to one of his brothers and passing out.

Angel let his hand curl up to cradle the back of Liam’s skull, petting his long hair absently. He felt a little bloom of bittersweetness rise in his chest. He still felt so guilty about what he had heard that day from outside his bedroom, even though it was weeks ago—Liam’s grief. He’d avoided them for a long time, until his own panic abated, and eventually things had fallen into a kind of normality. Angelus had stopped being quite so vocal, and Angel stopped listening in. But nothing was the same. He couldn’t pretend anymore, and it tore him up inside.

But it was a small comfort, lying here with Liam, and for the first time in months, he didn’t feel so lonely. Angel turned his cheek to rest against the top of his brother’s head, and he fell asleep.

~*~*~*~

Liam was pressed warmly against Angel’s front, the bare skin of their chests sliding together as they lay on their sides and kissed. Angel’s nose was getting a little smushed by Lee’s enthusiasm, and he pulled away a little, snuffling a laugh when Liam craned his neck to follow. He got a giggle back from his brother when he nipped the lip brushing over his own. Feeling like he was glowing from the inside out, he tugged Lee closer, banding his arms tight. They couldn’t get any nearer to one another unless Angel were inside of him.

The thought squiggled strangely in his gut.

They had every reason to be happy. It was a Saturday, so there was no school. No place to be, since they didn’t have jobs or real responsibilities. And they were free to do this again as much as they wanted. It had been so hard to stay apart while mom and dad were home, but it would have raised eyebrows, obviously, for three sixteen-year-old brothers to end up in the same bed at night. Liam still looked forward to their parents’ visits even though he pretended not to—needing their attention even though he’d never admit it aloud—but Angel and Angelus hated it when they came. Their parents could never leave soon enough for them.

But they were gone again, finally, and that always brought on a feeling of celebration. Reunion, even though they’d never truly been apart.

Liam pushed his cock eagerly against Angel’s, but it was hard to get just the right amount of friction when they lay alongside one another like this, so when a hand reached around Liam’s back and grasped them both, they gasped and moaned.

“Is that better, boys?” Angelus was smirking at Angel over Liam’s shoulder in that cocky way of his that made Angel want to choke him most of the time. Except at times like this—

Angel yanked Angelus closer, dragging his upper body half over Liam’s shoulder, and mashed their mouths together. Their teeth clacked together until Angel sank his into his brother’s bottom lip, hard enough to break the skin, and Angelus chuckled into his mouth. And then tightened his hand hard enough on Angel’s cock that he had to break for air.

“And here mom and dad think you’re the good one, Ang.” Angelus smiled slyly and scraped his teeth over Liam’s throat as he pumped both of them hard, causing Angel to buck up into Angelus’ fist against Liam, swearing. Angelus’ hand moved he and Liam together, faster and faster until Angel’s mind was hazy and his body was ready to pop.

And then the prick let go.

“Goddammit, Angelus!”

Angelus laughed against Liam’s ear, and Liam was obviously trying to fight off a smile himself. Angelus’ “What?” didn’t come out nearly innocent enough to be convincing.

As if Angel could be convinced he _was_ innocent.

“You’re a dirty rotten tease.”

“You know, you’re only a tease if the other person never gets off. What I am is _considerate_. Because I was thinking that after two weeks of nothing but a little light petting with Miss Buffy Summers, you’d appreciate getting sucked off by our boy, here.”

Angel’s tongue felt thick in his mouth. “That um….” He felt his breath catch at the way Liam’s tongue darted out of his mouth, and he realized he’d been staring at Lee’s lips. “That sounds like a really good idea, actually.”

Angelus laughed. “Yeah, I’m full of those. I’m a real thinker.”

Angel couldn’t even manage a dirty look because pretty much, Angelus always was. Really good, awful ideas.

Angelus pushed at Angel’s shoulder to force him onto his back, and then Liam was shifting between his legs, mouth latching onto Angel’s nipple as the soft skin of Lee’s belly rubbed against his cock. His chest was rising and falling quickly as Liam made his way down Angel’s body.

Angel moaned loudly when Lee’s mouth closed around his dick.

Christ, Liam was good at this. Angel closed his fingers around a fistful of shaggy hair, toes flexing towards the foot of the bed as Lee sucked him down, tight fist working the base of his cock. He liked doing it, too…liked watching you with his mouth full of your cock, liked making your eyes roll back in your head. Liked it when you petted him. Liked it when you told him—

“God, Lee, that’s so good. Jesus, don’t stop, I need—fuck, just like that….”

And Angelus liked to watch. To survey his handiwork, his masterpiece. It was a win-win situation all around.

Eventually Liam’s mouth was moving too fast and tight and slick for Angel to keep his eyes open. All he could manage was to moan and pant and arch his back and cry out when Lee sucked extra hard on his head or took so much of him in that Angel could feel his throat flexing around him. Lee couldn’t really deep-throat, but bless him, he never stopped trying. This particular blow-job was especially eager and frantic, and Angel’s eyes fluttered back in his skull with pleasure.

Angel felt Liam’s moan vibrate right into his organs. He was getting close, _again_ , when Liam froze, hands squeezing down where they had been caressing the sides of Angel’s abdomen. Angel’s cock dropped out of Lee’s mouth, and he moaned again, strange and strained, and Angel realized that there were other sounds too. Panting, and the soft rasp of Angelus’ dirty curses.

When Angel opened his eyes to see what was going on, his heart stopped.

Angelus was…he was kneeling behind Liam, hips pressed against Liam’s ass. But there was no reddened cock-head peaking out from Liam’s cheeks as Angelus slid through the groove between them—as there always had been before, in that position. Liam’s eyes were closed in an expression that was indeterminantly pleasure or pain, mouth gaping, and Angelus was breathing heavily, eyes fixed between their bodies with heavy fascination as his hand petted soothingly down Liam’s spine.

“Jesus Christ, you’re so tight, Lee. Goddamn. Don’t move.”

Angel finally found his voice. “What are you doing?” He felt Liam’s wide eyes on his face, but he was only looking at Angelus. Who was staring right back.

“What the hell does it _look_ like I’m doing, Angel?”

Angel sat up, scooting away from the pair of them, suddenly sick. His erection was gone, even though he still felt hot in his belly. “Angelus, you can’t…we can’t do _that_. That’s too far.”

Angelus gritted his teeth, irritated at the interruption. “And why is that, Angel? I’m interested to know. Not like any of us are going to make little mutant babies.”

Angel blanched. “That’s not…brothers shouldn’t _do_ that. It’s too…it’s personal.”

Lee was trying to squirm away from Angelus in the face of the dispute, but Angelus held him in place. He pulled his cock out with a stomach-turning slide-pop, but when Liam tried to move apart, he pulled him back, practically into his lap. He held Liam in place.

“You’re such a sanctimonious little shit, Angel. Your _brother_ sucks your dick and it’s ‘God yes, don’t stop,’ and somehow fucking is _too personal_?”

The weighty truth of it brought a wave of nausea. What had he been doing? Why did he think it was ok to be with them this way? “It’s…we can’t….”

“It was bad enough that you pretend to be a good little citizen during the day, like we aren’t making you come every night, but now this? I won’t put up with this bullshit anymore, Angel, you’re either in or you’re out.”

“Gus—”

They both ignored Liam’s uncomfortable interjection.

“ _Bullshit?_ It isn’t _bullshit_. This is a _sin_ , Angelus. We’ve been…God, I can’t even….” Angel stumbled off the bed, foot catching on the edge of the mattress in his haste. He was shaking as he reached for his pants, which lay in a tangle with two others of the same size.

“Blah blah, sin and damnation, blah blah blah…that’s bullshit, too. Go on and run, Angel. Run off and play good little Catholic for a while. You’ll be back, because you want it just as much as we do, but I’d love to see the look on Father Donavon’s face when he hears _that_ confession. Not like it was one weak slip-up, was it? A drunken mistake? It was _years_. Years of deliberate action, and what will he say when you tell him you can’t truly repent? When you tell him you loved every minute of it, and you itch for the chance to do it again.”

Angelus kept picking away at him with the truth until his heart was racing. “ _YOU’RE SINNERS!_ ” he screamed suddenly, shocking himself. Stood with his fist balled tight around the shirt he’d picked off the floor, words torn from him by the sick knowledge that every word from Angelus’ mouth was true, and the intense need to wipe the vicious triumph from his brother’s face. His heart trembled at the stricken look on Liam’s face, but he was too upset to stop himself. “You’ll always be sinners, but I won’t. I won’t play this twisted game with you anymore, it’s an abomination before God.”

The room was dead silent for one suspended moment. The look of triumph was gone, that was certain. Angelus’ face registered cold rage just before he shot off the bed, and before Angel could react, his throat was being squeezed with just enough upward pressure to lift his heels from the carpet. He choked, but didn’t struggle.

Angelus’ face was stone. “Get the fuck out of my room.” He released him suddenly with a punch to the gut, and Angel almost toppled. “Get the fuck out of here and don’t even think about coming back.”

Angelus stood defensively in front of the bed as Angel straightened himself and caught sight of Liam, pale and wounded on the bed. God, Lee….

“Lee, I didn’t mean—”

“Don’t you dare talk to him, you piece of shit.”

“Angel—”

“Get out. Now. Before my foot finds whatever passes for your balls and boots them back inside your body where they belong.”

Angel held his brother’s hateful eyes for a long moment before he turned and walked out. The door was slammed shut behind him.

~*~*~*~

This time Angel woke with a sob, big gaping hole in his chest, and it took him a moment to register the body still pressed needily against his.

Lee.

Somehow Lee had forgiven him. Angelus never had. Angel still felt slightly ill when he thought about everything they’d done together, but he’d always regretted screaming those words. Sounded exactly like their Da, and it had broken Liam’s heart. Still wasn’t mended, apparently.

And Angelus would never admit it, but it had wounded him, too. He flatly rejected everything their father stood for, but Angel knew it stung that he was rejected in return. He never said it, he never showed it, but Angel felt it. They couldn’t ever really hide anything from each other, much as they all liked to pretend. And they fought, and they bickered, but the three of them had always been safe for each other.

And then Angel had smashed it all to hell by being exactly the thing they’d always circled the wagons against.

It had been the worst day of his life. As much as the memory of their first fumbling intimacy made him uncomfortable and guilt-ridden, _that_ memory, the fight that had driven them apart, was…the worst thing that had ever happened to him. The worst thing he’d ever done. And he’d take it back now if he could.

He didn’t know if he would have ended his part in their strange affection or objected to Angelus doing _that_ , but he wouldn’t have ended it like that.

Tears in his eyes, Angel pulled the sleeping boy—man—closer to him, feeling heartsick and grateful for the way Liam had never closed him out. He would let Liam into his bed. If this was what it took for his brother to sleep right, he’d give him that much until Angelus came back.

It was the least he could do.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Liam is naughty

When Angel slept, he looked just like Angelus.

Liam had forgotten about that…how very much they all looked alike. Years had passed since he’d slept beside Angel, and in waking, his brothers looked nothing alike. So different in the way they talked…the way they carried themselves…their facial expressions and general demeanor.

But when they were sleeping, they both looked…warm. Safe. Like lions, big and fierce and protective. Liam thought about the way Angel had draped heavy, possessive limbs over him in sleep for the last four nights, unconsciously tugging him closer as he snored.

He ached a little, to think about it.

Angel would be a whole different kind of fierce when he realized what Liam was about to do. If it was Angelus’ wrist he was slowly closing a handcuff around, he’d consider himself a dead man.

Liam carefully threaded the chain of the cuffs through the headboard and back around, gently trapping his brother’s other wrist. He breathed a little easier when the bracelet clicked closed and Angel’s steady rhythm of breathing hadn’t changed.

He was so nervous that his hands shook just a little as he peeled Angel’s sweats off his body, dragging them out from under his ass as he tugged them down over his hips. Ang stirred a little at that, but then quieted.

Liam trailed a wistful finger along Angel’s shaft, heart constricting before he dipped his head to close his lips around the underside of his brother’s cock, sucking slightly on the edge of the head. Angel hummed and shifted, legs sprawling a little wider as his pelvis pressed upward in unconscious invitation. It was all so familiar, from another lifetime when they were all little more than children playing games. Ones that they thought couldn’t hurt anyone, until something inside of Angel shattered. None of them had come away unscathed.

Heart hammering too hard to play a teasing game, Liam angled the thick cock up towards his mouth and sucked on the reddish helmet, swallowing more of Angel as his tongue swirled at the familiar taste. The texture. It had been six years, but it was so familiar. From Angelus. From his dreams.

Angel moaned, hips rolling up into the sensation. “Ohh god…Liam….”

Liam froze, startled…even moreso when he realized that Angel was still asleep. Did Angel…dream about him? The thought made his eyes burn a little, but he quickly pushed the thought away.

Angel was stirring from sleep, body agitating with increasing frequency as Liam worked him. When his body suddenly jerked awake, hands yanking at his restraints, Liam didn’t stop…instead, intensified the suction…increased the rate at which his mouth pulled and sank, hoping to distract Angel from the protest he was sure to make.

“Liam—” Angel gasped and arched up, body bucking in pleasure. Metal rattled against wood roughly as he tried to free himself. “Lee, let me out of these fucking cuffs.”

Liam refused to look up at him, concentrating on the job at hand. “Hm-mmm.” Angel swore at the vibration around his flesh, hips flexing upwards, and Liam quelled the urge to snicker. Angel had always been a little ticklish when it came to that.

Avoiding eye contact, Liam laved down Angel’s shaft messily, enjoying the way Angel moaned and strained at the cuffs in a manner that had nothing to do with escape. He tilted his head as he sucked one of Angel’s balls into his mouth, hot and wet, tongue laving over the salty, lightly haired skin.

Angel arched up, head thrown back in a cry of surprise, and while he was distracted, Liam allowed himself to look. To appreciate the tight smooth musculature he’d developed since Liam had last seen him naked…the result of what Gus called the Repression Routine. He quickly looked away as Angel’s face turned towards him again.

“Lee….” His name was more of a moan than anything as he nipped at Angel’s sac, tugging lightly at the flesh until Angel’s breath was hitching. The acknowledgement of _Liam_ made his head feel light and giddy. Made his cock flex.

He rolled Angel’s legs up, groping the thick muscles of his thighs as he rimmed the tight pucker, moaning when his brother’s body bucked in shock with a high, constricted sound. He’d never done this to Angel. He’d never done it to _Angelus_. Couldn’t imagine Gus allowing such a vulnerable thing, even cuffed. He’d picked it up…elsewhere.

Spike might be toppy, but he was a kinky bastard. Especially when he was trashed.

But Angel seemed to enjoy it, so much so that when Liam eased him back onto the bed and closed his lips around the excitement-flushed cock, Angel gasped like he’d been burned. And when Liam deep-throated him—remembering how his early attempts had always made Angel’s eyes roll back in his head and wanting so badly to be _enough_ , to be more—Angel’s hips shot off the bed and he swore in a sob of surprise, and Liam had to squeeze off the orgasm slamming into his triplet’s body.

When Liam finally sat up, he met the face turned down towards his, flushed with lust and sleep. He crawled up the bed, laying his fingers over Angel’s mouth when he opened it to speak before replacing them with his lips. Angel made a plaintive little sound at the slow, almost innocent kiss, and it grew into a moan when Liam lowered his naked body, undulating his hips against Angel’s.

Liam got caught up in the slide of skin, heat flooding up from his groin as his cock slid against Angel’s on a film of their pre-come. They were both well on their way to frotting themselves to completion when he remembered his purpose and drew his knees up under his body. Before Angel could register his intention, he reached back to steady his brother’s erection as he bore down quickly, taking it into his own body.

One of them groaned. Liam had been ready—more than, and he’d made sure of that—but Angel had obviously been unprepared for this turn of events, and his body convulsed, jaw clamped as he fought for control, eyes flickering under his eyelids.

When the out-of-control spasms had gentled into trembling muscles, Liam leaned in to kiss him, accepting the teeth that sank into his bottom lip fiercely and welcoming the gentler slide of a tongue. They were both panting against each other, and when Angel’s eyes opened, they were hot and ferocious.

“Liam, unlock these cuffs.”

He flinched at the rejection, eyes closing against the gathering moisture, and shook his head. “No,” he murmured, in case there was any doubt.

“Lee—”

“No,” he repeated, soft but firm, rolling his hips to remind them both who was in control at the moment. Angel just had to remember…that it could feel so good. That he didn’t always have to do the right thing and…that life was better this way. Liam just had to remind him.

Gut churning at the knowledge that even in the heat of things Angel didn’t want him, Liam sat up, eyes shut against his self-consciousness as he began to ride him. God it felt so good. He focused on the heaviness of Angel’s breath, the little sighing moaning grunting noises he made as Liam undulated in his lap faster and faster. Angel murmured his name, and Liam could almost pretend that he wanted this. That he didn’t have to be forced into it.

That everything was different and they lived somewhere where no one cared that they did this. No one thought it was dirty and disgusting, and his brothers didn’t hate each other, and they loved him and let him love _them_ , and things were perfect….

Liam took hold of his cock and began jerking himself, enjoying the fantasy and the real life fuck, slitting his eyes open to look down at Angel as he breathed hard and fast. Angel’s face was dark, intense, and Liam swallowed, unsure what he was thinking.

“Lee. C’mere.”

He hesitated a moment but then Angel bucked his hips hard and Liam cried out as it knocked him forward, and when his mouth was taken in a hungry kiss, he melted with relief. He moaned with surprise into the softly dominating mouth as Angel thrust into him, thighs straining for leverage as he maintained the pace that Liam had set, fucking him harder, faster.

Liam broke the kiss with a gasp, bracing himself so he could push his body against the strokes, hips clashing with Angel’s again and again as they worked themselves up to mindlessness. So good. Too good….

“Ah…Ang….” Liam reached back to fist his cock furiously, muscles coiling until they couldn’t possibly get tighter, and there was a moment where he was stuck on the brink, helpless.

But then Angel ground up against him, coming with a choked moan…looking right at Liam as he filled him with warmth. Looking right at him, murmuring his name.

Liam exploded.

Their hips continued to move restlessly together as they both came down from the aftershocks, Liam bracing himself heavily on one hand. He felt achy, already hollow as Angel’s soft cock slipped from his body.

It had been so good, but he knew it would never happen again. Angel was going to be so pissed, now that his head was clear, and Liam didn’t know if he could go back to the way things used to be.

Angel stared up at him inscrutably for a measureless length of time, while Liam chose to focus somewhere on his left cheek. When he finally spoke, his voice was low. “Let me out of these cuffs.”

Liam cringed, anticipating Angel’s flight. “Angel, please, we don’t have to—”

“Liam. Let me out of these cuffs. Now.” Angel’s voice carried the weight of an aggravated parent, an impending threat clinging to the end of the sentence. Putting it off was only going to make things worse.

Liam sat up and reached for the key on the bedside table, unlocking the cuffs with dread. Preparing himself for getting kicked out. For getting left behind. For getting told he was too sick to be loved. Angel sat up and rubbed at his wrists, studying Liam’s face until Liam looked away.

When Angel lay back and stretched out his arm in welcome, Liam stared at him—confused and off-balance. “Angel?”

Angel’s mouth tipped up in a tentative smile, even though he still looked troubled. “C’mere, Liam.” When Liam still hesitated, Angel added, “It’s alright, Lee, I’m not angry. C’mere.”

He pulled Liam down onto the bed and rolled them until they were fitted together on their sides. Angel’s arm squeezed reassuringly at his waist, and his breath was warm and gentle at the nape of Liam’s neck.

Liam shuddered with a swell of uncertain emotion. Angel pressed a kiss to his skin. “Go to sleep, Lee. I’m not mad.”

He drifted off to sleep, not entirely certain he wasn’t dreaming already.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which the top dogs finally have it out

As much fun as he’d had in New York with Darla, Angelus looked forward to returning home immensely, with a smile on his face.

After all, Liam had been quite chatty lately. Had lots of interesting things to say about their big brother.

Best part was how Lee had finally suckered the old fart into fucking. Handcuffed him to the bed…when Angelus had suggested bondage, he hadn’t imagined Liam had the balls to go through with it. But hell, it was funny.

“Honey, I’m home!” The door slammed shut behind him, house settling on its foundations from the disturbance, but there was no greeting. The house was dark and quiet…though it was a Friday night, so there was a good chance Lee was off at a bar getting tanked.

No doubt he’d be feeling more secure in his social life now that Angel had fucked him six ways from Sunday. Literally.

But there was little to no chance the stud himself was off having a social life. Not like he dated much, these days.

Angelus dropped his things in the foyer—because it would rile Angel if he _was_ home—and wandered farther into the house.

“Angel? Annnngelcakes!” He smirked over the look Angel had surely pulled over that one.

Just as he thought, Angel was in his dark little den, sitting by one dim bulb—birds of a feather, apparently—reading…something tediously pretentious. Sartre. Camus.

“You _are_ home. And here I thought I was coming back to a cold, empty house. Shame on you, brother, making me hunt you down.”

Angel didn’t look up. “Yeah well, you bellowed hard enough to bring the neighbors if you’d been lonely. And it all ended well, because here you are. Now get out.”

Ignoring the order, Angelus kicked over closer and threw a hip onto the arm of Angel’s chair, forcing his elbow out of the way. “Whatcha readin’?”

“ _The Stranger_.”

Angelus smirked over the accuracy of his previous guess.

“Interesting choice. A stranger. Not really your style, all things considered. I would have pegged you as being more in the mood for something like… _Sons and Lovers_.”

Angelus almost crowed at the stiffening of Angel’s posture, a frozen moment of surprise and discomfort before he relaxed nonchalantly and turned the page…even though Angelus knew he hadn’t been done with that one.

“Why are you still here again?” There was an edge to the casual tone that made him grin.

“Just wanted to see what all the fuss was about, Ang. Figured you might need an exorcism or something, because the brother I know, he doesn’t bend our Liam over the couch and do…un _god_ ly things to him. ‘Til he weeps.”

Angel was out of his seat and barreling Angelus back into the wall before he could blink. He laughed, delighted with the snap in this prick’s unrelenting patience, even if the hand squeezing down on his trachea was no joke.

“What I do with Liam is none of your goddamn business, jackass, so stay out of it.”

Thinking himself the victor, Angel eased off his choke-hold and started to step back, stumbling slightly over the first-edition copy of the book he’d hastily dropped and trod upon in his fury.

“See, that’s where our opinions differ.” Angel didn’t see the punch coming until his head was snapping back with an amusingly shocked expression. Angelus grinned. “Finders, keepers.”

Angelus was expecting the fist thrown straight towards his eye—that was gonna look ugly tomorrow. Angel was so fucking predictable. “He’s not a toy to play your games with, Angelus.”

“ _Really_. It’s funny to hear you say that, because you’re the one that put him back in his box and only now decided to take him back out for a—” His sentence was cut short by a sucker punch to the gut, and doubling over in pain was only half-feigned until Angel hesitated in concern.

That’s when Angelus tackled him at the midsection, knocking him ass-first onto the floor. Before he could pin him, Angel threw his weight until they went rolling, one knee coming startlingly close to Angelus’ balls and giving him the proper motivation to keep the momentum up until he came out on top once again.

“Ah-ah-ah! Who’s playing games now?”

Angel gritted his teeth, trying to flip them again but Angelus managed to keep him pinned. “I’m not playing. I’m seriously going to kill you.”

 _That_ made Angelus laugh. “Don’t think so, big brother. You don’t want to. You like having me around, making you look good.”

“You’re so full of shit.”

“Am I? Why do I disagree with you?” Feigning thoughtfulness, Angelus suddenly dropped his weight, grinding his hips into the obvious rocket in Angel’s pocket. Angel moaned as he sustained the friction. “Ah, right. That’s why. This reminds me of something…maybe the first time I ever made you come. It was a pissing contest over Lee then too, as I recall….”

Angel bucked him off suddenly, rolling to his knees for a short intense tussle until he was pressing Angelus into the carpet on his stomach, arm banded around his throat clamped on to one arm and the other twisting his other arm behind his back. Angel’s breath was hot on his ear, and he felt the tiniest shimmer of excitement as Angel started to rub himself against his ass. He struggled, but Angel had him well pinned.

“You might not have such a bad idea here, though this probably isn’t exactly what you had in mind.” He laughed against Angelus’ neck, scraping his teeth over the skin there as Angelus tried once again to buck him off. “Yeah, that’s it, squirm a little harder, Gus.”

Fucker. He barely let Liam get away with that Gus shit.

Sheer wrath had him ripping his arm out of Angel’s grip, letting the violent momentum drive his fist back into Angel’s nose. Angel yelped and loosened his grip—Angelus hadn’t pulled the punch at all—and Angelus shrugged him off his back hard, jumping on top of him until he had him pinned down once again, two thick wrists in one hand.

Angel didn’t put up much of a struggle, especially once Angelus’ other hand descended to clutch at his cock through his pants. To be honest, they both knew what was going on here. The game had changed.

Neither of them spoke for a moment, breathing heavily as Angelus fondled Angel and the reality of it sank in. Angelus popped the button and zipper under his palm, and when his hand was finally on Angel’s bare cock, Angel moaned and pressed up into the grasp.

“You gonna be a good boy? Or are you gonna fight me.” Angelus found that his own voice was rough…thick with anticipation.

“Fuck you,” Angel spat out, and Angelus grinned.

“That’s what I figured you’d say.” Without releasing his wrists, Angelus raked his shirt up, latching onto one nipple with his teeth, nipping and twisting as he tugged on the cock still inside Angel’s boxers.

Angel rolled his body up into the fist, no reservation now. He was a horny bastard once he gave into it, and he always had been. Lust-greedy. Moaning. His thigh rubbed itself into Angelus’ groin, and Angelus groaned.

He had both of them naked from the waist down about ten seconds after he let go of Angel’s wrists, and then he was on him again, rutting his cock against Angel’s, teeth digging into the muscles of his neck. Angel scrabbled Angelus’ t-shirt up his back and over his head before tugging off his own.

Angelus laughed, a little breathless with lust. “Always knew you were hot for me, Sweet Cheeks. Want me to own this ass.”

One leg hooked under his knee, a fist yanking hard on his hair, and before he knew it, Angelus was weighed down by 200 pounds of angry male. “I don’t think so.”

“No? Sad, because you’re made for it. Just like Lee, born to submit and take it like a bitch in heat. Doesn’t he? Maybe he can show you how to really get me off. I’m gonna have a real fun time—”

Blind with anger, Angel pulled Angelus’ knees up and thrust into his body, hard and unapologetic. The horror at his action was so brief it was regrettable, eclipsed quickly by the realization that Angelus was already stretched and slick with grease.

The shock on his face was priceless.

Angelus probably could have enjoyed it a whole lot more if his blood weren’t pooled so far south. He panted, adjusting to the girth of a cock inside of him. God it was good. But he had an image to maintain, so he smirked knowingly up at his incredulous brother.

“What, Ang? You think I didn’t see this coming? Hate to break it to you, buddy, but even when you’re spontaneous, you’re wildly predictable. You’ve been wanting to put it to me for years.”

Neither of them moved, at a standoff. When Angelus bore down with his muscles on Angel’s cock, Angel moaned, breaking eye contact as his rolled back into his skull. Angelus loved winning.

“Did you ever imagine that Wes was a little broader across the chest when you pounded that ass? I’ll bet you did. Don’t look so shocked, Angel, we all knew…as if the two of you could hide it. Not everyone’s a prude like you. But now that I think about, Wes never did have a pair on him, did he? No way you could have pretended it was me—Liam maybe, the way he must have whimpered for your cock. I don’t beg, and you knew that already, didn’t you? I might let you drive, but I do like to steer. So maybe it was Cordy. Closed your eyes and wished away the tits. Bet she had a real filthy mouth on her…did she ever let you in the back door, Angel?”

Angelus was laughing even as the fist flew at his face…still laughing when he probed his split lip with his tongue, tasting the coppery flavor of his own blood.

“Careful, brother, or with all this abuse of a defenseless man, you’re gonna get your white hat revoked.”

“Shut the fuck up, Angelus.”

Angel looked ready to boil over. Good. Angelus just held his eyes calmly and smirked. “Make me.”

Angel pulled back and rammed into his body with so much force that a guttural grunt was torn from Angelus. He giggled. “Now we’re talkin’. I know you, Angel. I know you like it dirty…that’s what I’m for, isn’t it? So your little girlfriends won’t know what you wan—”

His voice was muffled when Angel’s hand slapped down over his mouth, sealing it. Angel repeated his hard thrust, and was preparing for another when Angelus bit down hard on his finger. Angel swore and yanked his hand away.

“I know you don’t get laid very often, but covering the mouth of the person you’re fucking is generally considered bad form.”

“Yeah, but I’m not fucking a person, I’m fucking you.”

Angelus’ laughter was cut off by his gasp when Angel started really pounding him. Things were very different on the other side of this equation. He refused to mewl and beg like Liam, but Jesus fuck, he wanted to.

Angel grunted, shifting his weight. “Christ, you’re about to squeeze my dick off. Does this mean you’ve been saving yourself for me? I’m flattered.”

Angelus felt prickly at the near-truth. “Fuck off, Angel.”

Angel snorted. “Does it look like I’m picking daisies?”

“Only you would come up with a girlie metaphor like that, you—” Angelus snarled wordlessly when Angel’s hand came back to cover his mouth.

Angel rammed him with a particularly vindictive thrust. “Be a good boy, and I’ll let you scream my name.”

Angelus surprised _himself_ by smiled into Angel’s hand and watched his brother grin back. Been so long since the fucker had smiled that he’d forgotten what it looked like. He sucked one of Angel’s fingers into his mouth and wrapped his tongue around the digit, smirking when Angel moaned and doubled his efforts. Angelus licked Angel’s palm and wrapped that hand around his own dick.

Hint, hint.

Angel squeezed his cock and began pumping him. “Didn’t anybody ever tell you that bottoms are supposed to lay back and take what they’re given?”

Angelus bit back a moan. “I don’t know who _you’ve_ been fucking. And I’m not a bottom.”

Angel laughed. “Could have fooled me, bottom boy.” He shifted his angle and then he was pounding Angelus’ prostate while he pulled hard on his cock, and Angelus went shamefully incoherent.

He grasped for dignity. “Fuck me harder, pansy…I can hardly feel— _fuck_.” Angelus dug his claws in against Angel’s scalp as Angel made good on the challenge. When Angelus erupted he yanked a thick handful of hair hard enough that Angel cursed him as he came, grinding his pelvis against Angelus’ ass.

Angelus’ mouth was dry and he was covered in sweat. Angel had fallen onto him, forehead pressed to his shoulder as though his head were too heavy, and Angelus sympathized because he couldn’t even hold his limbs up.

They fell from their grip on Angel’s body and slithered tiredly to the floor.

Angel lifted his head from where it was wearily propped, and did the last thing Angelus had been expecting—he kissed him. The entire fuck had been conducted without one, and that was how he’d expected it to happen. They’d made out as kids but that wasn’t really what they were about, these days.

At least, he hadn’t thought it was.

It was always about power and control between them. Always. Even when they were barely teenagers, and maybe especially then. But this kiss, this quiet probing of Angel’s lips against his, it wasn’t about that at all, and damned if he knew what it was.

Must have been the afterglow.

Angelus licked his lips when Angel pulled away with a bemused little smile. “Maybe I should have fucked you sooner, if it makes you this easy to manage.”

Angelus hid his smile under a scowl and pushed Angel aside. “I was just out of breath from the way your fat ass was compressing my rib cage.” Christ, he had rug burn all over his back. That was gonna sting for a while.

Angel stretched out and _purred_ , finally propping his head up on his arms. “I’d ask if it was good for you, but that was pretty obvious. You’re welcome.”

Angelus snorted. “It was passable. Next time I need an itch scratched, I’d consider giving you a chance to do better.” He rocked to his feet and completely destroyed his bluff by wobbling on his legs.

He could feel Angel grinning at his retreating back. “Yeah, you do that.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Angel is exhausted and cranky

Angel’s quiet, ordered life had…gone missing. In its place stood a continuous orgy of sex. 

He was tired. He was sore.

You’d think he would be grateful, and he had been, for the first couple weeks. He’d been all smug and in charge, thinking he’d hit the mother load and wondering why it had taken him so long to see that it was better to just give in and live the way his brothers clearly wanted to. 

But eventually exhaustion and Angelus’ sly ribbing took care of most of his pleasure in the situation. His guilt—his ever-clinging guilt—took care of the rest.

Well, ok. Maybe there was still a little pleasure being had. Or, really more than a little. At regular intervals. But things were way too complicated to be carefree.

And his back hurt. But damned if he’d tell Angelus that.

~*~*~*~

Angelus was working himself on Angel’s cock, hard and furious. The mattress was bouncing and Angelus was grunting with effort. 

Angel lay on his back in a haze of pleasure from the squeezing heat of his brother’s ass, too fucking exhausted to do anything other than lay here and let Gus bounce on his dick. He’d had a late night with Lee.

“Jesus Christ, Angel, you could put some effort it.”

Angel yawned. “Why? You’re being thorough enough for the both of us.”

“Lazy fucker.” Angelus took hold of his hand and wrapped it around his waving erection, curling his fingers for him around the girth. “Fine, just…keep your hand like that. You don’t even have to move, are you happy?”

“Perfectly.”

Angel’s lips twitched at the insulting curse that smug answer earned him, closing his eyes and letting Angelus fuck his cock and hand by turns. Lee had really wrung him out at three this morning, but a whole bleary day at work and he was able to work up one mild orgasm for Angelus.

He was polite enough to wait until Gus shot all over his stomach. Fuck, now he needed a shower.

“You’re fucking useless, you know that?” Angelus flopped onto the bed beside him, stretching and scratching his belly.

Angel yawned again, feeling the exhaustion drag him down. “What do you expect? I work all day, then you want to fuck as soon as Liam leaves the house to go drinking. He gets back at god knows what time, in god knows what state, and comes in here pressing up against me, so of course….”

“You have to fuck him. What a good big brother you are. Selfless, really.”

“Shut up,” he groaned, rolling over, smushing his face into the pillow. “This is all your fault.”

Angelus snorted behind him. “I’m so sorry to get you laid. You know, it’s not like _I’m_ having trouble keeping up. I don’t know what you’re excuse is.”

“My excuse is that you’ve got the day shift. All your fucking takes place between noon and midnight. Lucky bastard.” 

“Easy way to fix this, you know.” It was the voice of the devil, way too tempting.

“And what’s that?”

“Multitasking.”

Angel’s stomach did an odd, slow roll at the idea of all of them in bed together, at the same time. “No.”

“You’re such a freak, I don’t know what you’re problem is with the idea of all of us—”

He couldn’t bring himself to do more than mumble. “Just drop it, ok?” 

“Whatever. Retard.”

The bed shifted as Angelus got up, but Angel was already dropping into sleep.

~*~*~*~*~

A body was pressing against his back, snickering and groping his ass. Liam. Angel wiped at his eyes and checked the clock. Two am, fresh from the bars and really smelling like it. He’d been asleep for three hours.

Christ.

“Annngg. Wakey waaaakey.”

Angel groaned and let his head fall back against the pillow, flat into a puddle of spittle. Eeww. He’d been sleeping hard. Liam’s hand was wriggling under his hip bone, trying to work its way towards his cock, which was not even close to being interested.

Liam’s hand slid over his belly.

Angel shot up, very awake all of a sudden as he remembered the jizz all over his abdomen and chest. Shit. “Hey, I gotta…bathroom.”

He ignored the sound of exaggerated disappointment at his departure, toddling off to the bathroom to piss and rinse Angelus’ come away. 

Liam was on him again as soon as he got under the covers. Damn horny drunk. Angel would have smiled at the slovenly affection being lavished on his neck, but he was too preoccupied with the hand jerking his limp dick with clumsy determination.

Clumsy determination which was not paying off. Angel thought he might be able to get it up with a forklift, sometime next year. 

“Lee,” he mumbled, wanting nothing more than to drift off to sleep. When the enthusiastic pumping of the hand didn’t slow, he gripped Liam’s wrist and pulled it away. He heaved a sigh at the resulting whimper and struggle. “Lee, stop. I’m exhausted. There’s no way.”

There was a sly flutter of lips against his pulse-point. “Please?”

Angel huffed out a laugh, charmed despite himself by the guileless ploy. “No, Lee. I can’t.”

Suddenly a cock was becoming intimately acquainted with his hip. “Ang….”

Jesus, he was never going to get any sleep like this. He pushed Liam’s shoulder roughly until he flailed onto his back, and before Liam could pout, sank down the bed without preamble until he was waist-level. Lee was looking down at him with wide eyes, chest heaving fast and excited, and when Angel sucked his cock into his mouth, he shouted so loudly that there was no way Angelus didn’t wake up. 

Angel had never done this for Liam before, and between the novelty and the inebriation and the fact that Angel was swallowing around the head like it was candy-coated, it didn’t take very long. Liam’s fingers massaged his scalp politely, kneading like a cat at the source of the pleasure, body bucking erratically.

“Oh God, Angel. _Angel!_ Oh, fuck _me_ ….”

And then Liam was coming, and Angel swallowed because these sheets were 500-thread raw silk.

Lee’s body went endearingly limp after he came. Angel crawled back up towards the headboard and threw himself onto his stomach, pressing a kiss to Liam’s cheek. Liam stirred with a weak response, exhaling a sigh when Angel threw his arm over his chest, hand resting palm-down over Liam’s slowing heart.

Angel drifted into a sleep filled with odd, vivid dreams that he couldn’t grasp upon waking. 

But when the mattress shifted and Liam crawled out of Angel’s bed, Angel awoke. It was always like this. Liam came to him, but he didn’t stay. He didn’t sleep the whole night. That privilege went to Angelus, who could stay sprawled under the covers with him until the sun was high. They didn’t have responsibilities, not like he did.

Angel didn’t let on that he was awake as Liam snuck out of the room. He needed to be at work in two hours.

~*~*~*~*~*~

They were fucking. They were fucking with that too-perfect intense realism that only comes from fantasy…no sweat, no soreness. More intense desperation and euphoria than mechanics, the movements unclear, unimportant in comparison to the lust.

He was fucking both of them, hips ramming Angelus’ so hard that it drove him forward into Lee, both boys uttering guttural, pleading sounds at the rough pace. It was intense and needy and endless, like he’d been pounding them for days and couldn’t stop. He had a vague sense of ill-ease, as though there were something he ought to be doing. But he couldn’t stop, like it was a compulsion, a perpetual motion machine that once begun, could not be halted.

He didn’t feel guilt, precisely. There was a vague shadow of shame—the sense that he should feel bad, though he was drowning in euphoria and a lazy kind of glee.

Angel was so caught up in his self-centered elation that he didn’t notice what was happening at first—but when he did realize, he was horrified. They were _fusing_. Bodies melting together as Angel drove them harder and faster—Liam dissolving against Angelus and Angelus dissolving into Angel, but he couldn’t stop. Couldn’t stop making it worse. Couldn’t move away.

And worse, he didn’t want to. Despite the impending sense of _not good_ at this bizarre turn of events, he willfully accelerated the process—it felt brilliant. 

It wasn’t until the defined boundaries between them were sticky and uncertain that Angel felt his passion actually building towards orgasm. As he came, they all convulsed, pleasure not just tripled but enhanced exponentially, their release synergizing into something so mind-blowing that it was perfect.

Just perfect.

When they pulled away…when they finally _could_ pull away, they untwined like so many strands from a thread, coming unraveled into something less substantial, flimsier, twisted and warped by the close union. He felt…wrong. Angel felt wrong, and he was horrified to realize as he looked at his brothers that they were not the same as they’d begun. There was a trace of ink on Liam’s shoulder where Angelus’ tattoo had imprinted itself, and Angelus now carried Angel’s distinct birthmark. Angel realized as he looked at his own hands that he now bore Liam’s scars from Angelus’ by-gone fascination with knives.

Changed forever. They had gotten under one another’s skin, and now they carried the scars to prove it. 

He woke in a cold sweat.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which, there is beer. not milkshakes.

It was getting to be a familiar scenario—Angel exhausted, tired and cranky, being ambushed by one of his brothers just inside the front door.

But this time the brother was dressed, and he had a distinctly concerned look on his face.

And it was Liam. Liam was never concerned about anything for longer than it took to down a shot of whiskey.

“Promise you’ll be nice.”

Angel blinked at him. When was he ever not nice to Liam? “’Course, Lee. What’s wrong?”

“It’s Gus.”

He frowned. “What did he do to you?” Angel rarely had cause for concern between those two anymore. Liam had made it abundantly clear that he was happy with the way things were. Angel still had his doubts about how that was possible, but….

“Not…something he did to me. Something done _to_ him.”

That made even less sense, and Angel was feeling a little short-tempered with the cryptic game they were playing. “Liam, he can take care of himself. Anyone that’s crossed him will know about it shortly, if they don’t already.”

“It’s not—” Liam made a frustrated noise, took Angel’s hand, and yanked him down the hall, to the cracked door of the tv room.

It took Angel’s eyes a moment to adjust, and his mind a moment longer than that. Angelus was sitting in one of the big leather armchairs alone, in the dark. Angel couldn’t make out the expression on his face in the yellow light filtering in from the hall, but he did catch the glint of a bottle dangling from his fingers as he slung it up for a swig. When the bottle was lowered again, Angelus rested it on his knee and sat, staring at nothing.

Angelus was brooding.

“What the hell happened?” he murmured to Liam. He wondered if Gus knew they were there, if he was just ignoring their whispers in the hall.

“Darla.”

Angel felt the usual pang of jealousy and frustration that always came packaged in with that manipulative bitch. “Back with the old bat?”

Liam nodded.

It was bound to happen again one of these days. Darla and Angelus were far from what you’d call committed, but even so, jealousy didn’t have much of a role in their rocky, on-again/off-again relationship. There was only one guy that Angelus really hated seeing her with.

That guy happened to be her husband. Her very powerful husband, whose fortune made their own inheritance look like pittance.

Darla might enjoy the adventure that life with Angelus offered…hell, maybe she did even love him, in the same strange way he loved her. But not enough that she wouldn’t run every time that ugly fucker called her home.

Apparently deciding that Angel had taken long enough, Liam pushed past him into the room and turned on a lamp.

Angelus flinched from the light, but didn’t look at either of them. “Go ‘way.”

“No.” 

Angel hovered in the doorway as Liam perched on the edge of the coffee table, legs tangling intimately with Angelus’. On the next swig of whiskey, Liam plucked the bottle out of his hand, and to Angel’s surprise, Angelus let him. 

Gave it up as if it weren’t worth the trouble, and wiped at his mouth before propping his head sullenly on one hand. 

He refused eye contact. Neither of the boys moved, and although Angel felt distinctly like an outsider to the moment, he shifted inside the door far enough to take a seat at the far end of the room.

“Doesn’t know how to treat a woman like her,” Angelus finally mumbled, voice thick. “She says we’re done for good this time, but….”

He trailed off as if the solution escaped him.

Liam looked down at the bottle in his hand, and Angel bit back on the urge to share his opinion on the subject of what Darla had coming to her. Be nice, Liam had said. Anyway, he was lacking all desire to pick an argument with Angelus at the moment. For once.

Angel felt his heart squeeze when Angelus looked up at Liam and said “She doesn’t love him.” As though he were trying to convince himself of the fact.

He watched helplessly as Liam soothed Angelus’ ego and comforted him. Angel had always been at a loss at moments like these, and this was even more disorienting. Angelus was the one who made things better, not the one who was broken.

When had Liam become the strong one?

He felt himself grasping at straws, wanting to fix it. Wanting for them _all_ to be close again, the way they were as kids….

“Let’s go to the restaurant!” he suddenly blurted.

They both turned and looked at him blankly. He didn’t miss the look they slid one another out of the corners of their eyes.

“We haven’t been to the restaurant in years.”

Angel held Angelus’ skeptical look. “Maybe it’s what we all need.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was their parents’ place. The first, before franchising made O’Shanassey a household name…before the similar chain of pubs, and coffee houses, and hotels, and all of the other crap they’d come to loathe.

They grew up playing under the tables of this restaurant, looking up skirts and keeping secrets and trying to avoid getting caught by their father’s right-hand man, who had more of a hand in running the place (and in raising the three of them) than their own father from the time of their earliest memory.

“Doyle.”

Clear blue eyes shot up at the sound of Liam’s voice. “Boys! What in the devil are you three doin’ here? Haven’t seen any of you in an age.”

“Angelus got dumped.” 

Liam jostled Angel for the blunt statement, but Doyle turned to Angelus with amused but sympathetic eyes. “Well, that’s a rare day. Stings like hell to be a mere mortal, doesn’it?” At odds with the teasing barb, his hand fell on Angelus’ shoulder, squeezing comfort as though he were still a teenage boy, and not a man that towered over him. “The usual, then?”

The three of them exchanged a look, thinking of the shakes that had been the staple of heartbreak all their young lives. Angel spoke for all of them when he said, “I think we’d prefer beer.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Angel loved his brothers. 

“Gus. Lee.” They both turned from their laughing banter to look at him. “I love you guys.”

“Christ.” Angelus rolled his eyes and looked away, but there was a smile lurking under the scowl. He seemed happier than he had before. That was good.

Lurk. That was a funny word. Lurk lurk, lurker lurking, lurkey bastard. He laughed.

Liam laughed at him. “We love you, too, Ang.”

“We should have cut him off after the first beer. He’s so cheap. Right, Angel? You’re a two-beer queer.”

“You know what, you’re right. Sometimes. But sometimes I like women.”

Liam laughed so hard some of the other patrons turned and stared towards the corner booth. Angelus snorted out a laugh and muttered ‘idiot.’

Lee said something to Gus that Angel couldn’t follow, so he just watched fixedly as Lee drew out a cigarette and lit it casually, gesturing as he spoke. Looked like Angelus. And Angelus looked like Liam, he thought as the room spun. Red-rimmed eyes and laughing mouth, just like little Lee.

He wasn’t sure where there left him, except he was pretty sure he wasn’t meant to be the drunk one. Images from his dream swam before him but he couldn’t quite grasp on. It was something about sameness. Or difference…ness. 

His head felt very heavy. He leaned against his hand. Someone said his name, and then there was laughter, but he was thinking really hard.

‘Bout Angelus, and walls, and whiskey bottles. About Liam, and handcuffs, and plumbers. About himself, and cold showers, and orgasms.

“We need to fuck more,” he suddenly declared. He laughed at the way Angelus’ eyes rounded and Liam choked on his beer. Since when had _they_ become such prudes. “A lot more. All three of us, together.”

“Christ,” Angelus swore, looking furtively around the restaurant. “We’d better get him out of here before he takes out an ad.”

He laughed as they hauled him to his feet between them, feeling lighter than he had in a long time. “You’re just jealous because you don’t know the secret.”

“Sure I do,” Gus muttered. “You’re an idiot.”

~*~*~*~*~

Angel woke up pressed between two warm bodies with a dead squirrel in his mouth.

Ugghhnn. Ptuh.

It had been so long since his last hangover that it took a moment to place himself. Then he remembered—Angelus’ crisis, easily plied with Guinness and old jokes…Doyle…a nearly mortifying public announcement…some kind of life-altering revelation that was probably all about the moon being made of mayonnaise or something.

He dimly recalled a vehement argument on a street corner about quitting his job.

They were all still dressed, sprawled together closely in Angel’s bed, though he recalled some very frisky begging on his part as they tried to dump him to sleep it off. They hadn’t been sober, but not drunk enough to match him, obviously.

There was something he was supposed to do, or fix or…something about Liam and Angelus. Something was wrong…or…unfinished or….

Christ, his head hurt.

And his bladder felt like a tennis ball. A very full, urgent tennis ball.

He carefully extracted himself from the tangle of limbs and swayed towards the bathroom, where he relieved himself and then decided that a shower and a toothbrush were the best idea he’d ever had.

T(not)BC


End file.
